Tragedy in Traffic

It’s been just about 24 hours since the news broke from Louisville, Kentucky that an unfortunate series of events occurred. Stemming from a pedestrian that was struck and killed out front of Valhalla. Home of the 2024 PGA Championship. The victim was later identified as John Mills. Mr. Mills was an employee for one of the vendor’s at the venue.

My condolences go out to the Mills family during this tragic and difficult time. I’m so sorry for your loss.

At some point before 6 a.m. (the sun currently rises at 5:49 a.m.) Mr. Mills was struck. All of the videos and images have clearly shown that it was dark. Scottie Scheffler was no doubt mired in a quagmire as a result of said incident. The scene was marked off and Louisville police services were on-site, directing traffic. Queue the “confusion” as described by Harris English during a post-round interview.

If you’ve never attended a golf event or aren’t familiar with the logistics that goes into the planning of an an event, parking and pedestrian control are always a paramount concern. In doing research, the area around Valhalla Golf Club doesn’t have a large parking lots like that of an airshow or NFL, MLB, or NCAA football game. Even so, there are always people scurrying all over the place near the venue. More than likely not paying any attention to their surroundings. But this article isn’t about what Mr. Mills did or didn’t do leading up to Scheffler’s decision.

Words like “confusion” and “misunderstanding” have been floated around by several players including Scheffler himself. Many players were seen walking along the road leading to Valhalla. Will Zalatoris and Cameron Young for instance. The fact that they weren’t able to get on-site does suggest an error as far as planning goes. An infrastructure that couldn’t facilitate hosting an event like the PGA Championship.

That being said, many of us have been in heavy traffic with police being present. Whether it’s an accident on a major highway/interstate or trying to escape from a massive parking lot after a sporting event. The police are often directing the flow and you just follow the flow of the car in front of you… staying in your lane. There had to be a vehicle in front of him, right?!

A rhetorical question. If a police officer “attaches” him or herself to your vehicle. Do you stop? To me it seems that the obvious answer is an emphatic “yes”. Heck, if we run over a box and hear it dragging we remove it from underneath as soon as we can providing it didn’t dislodge on it’s own. As far as I’m concerned, “misunderstanding instructions” or “confusion” shouldn’t even be a consideration or defense at this point. Was the police officer banging on the vehicle that was being driven?

The PGA decided to delay the start of the second round. It later surfaced that the player’s voted on whether to delay or postpone the second round. Was this a decision to show some compassion about the incident or was it more about players – like Scheffler – missing their tee times because of what now feels like a discombobulated mess? Although, that doesn’t apply here because Scheffler was arriving 2-3 hours before his tee time. Or was the reason for the delay a little more “sinister” in nature?

So we know that Scheffler was arrested, handcuffed, and detained for booking. The Louisville Police charged him with four charges. Second-degree assault of a police officer, criminal mischief in the third degree, reckless driving and disregarding signals from officers directing traffic. . In Kentucky, the “reckless driving” alone is an arrestable offence (Careless Driving is a lesser offence). while the legalese is different, in Canada there’s “Dangerous Driving” vs “Careless Driving”. The former is a criminal offence under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Scheffler was then allowed to leave the police station – on what was likely a “Promise to Appear” (again there’s likely different terminology in Kentucky) – go back to Valhalla and make his tee time. He then fires a cool -6 (66). It’s astounding, really!! No, not the score. The fact that he got out in the first place. If it were Jeremy Wells, you or I would that have been the case?

Once again we are left wondering if there’s thinking that golf is seemingly bigger than life itself. It seems like we’ve seen it before… As long as you’re an “elite”.

And Another Thing or Two…

***Photo Credit: GOLF.com via Facebook***

Just remember how this came to be. One man lost his life… While another made a bad decision.
Everyone will remember Scheffler but who will remember John Mills?
This is a tragic event and something that was unequivocally avoidable.
It didn’t take long for golf fans to do what they do. T-shirts were made that say “Free Scottie” and chanting the same. Or other shirts that have Scottie’s mugshot plastered on it. Brutal.
It’s been suggested over social media that these shirts should be produced and sold. Say, if you’re one of the individuals that wants to profit from it, how about donating 75% to the Mills family to cover the expenses of his funeral arrangements? Oh and give it a cool name, like the “Scheffler Slammer”.

Just remember how this came to be. A man lost his life and another made a bad decision.