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The Colab Brief - 120: A Hole-In-One ⛳ for Scottie Scheffler

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Ash + Lizzy
May 25, 2024

Scottie Scheffler did not win the PGA Championship. 

But it wasn’t all L’s for the famed golfer. 

What happened to Scottie on the second morning of the PGA Championship wasn’t great. But the way his PR team handled the mess was an absolute ace. 

Read Time: 4 minutes. 

Background: 

For those of you who are unaware, the PGA Championship was last weekend. The PGA Championship is one of the four major tournaments and one of golf’s most prestigious events. Each tournament is 72 holes, played over the course of four days - Thursday through Sunday. 

Last Friday, May 17, Scottie Scheffler was arrested in the early morning hours after a misunderstanding with Louisville Metro Police while driving into Valhalla Golf Club for day two of the tournament. 

According to ESPN, “Traffic outside the golf course had been stopped after a man was struck and killed by a shuttle bus around 5 a.m. ET….According to ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington, who witnessed the incident, Scheffler was trying to drive around the crash scene on a median. A police officer instructed Scheffler to stop, but Scheffler continued to drive about 10 to 20 yards toward the entrance. At one point, an officer attached himself to the side of Scheffler's car. Scheffler stopped his car as he turned into the entrance of Valhalla Golf Club.”

DRAMA!!!!!

Now, this may seem like just a case of bad timing. But Scottie Scheffler isn’t just any golfer - Scottie Scheffler is the number one ranked golfer in the world. That’s like not letting Patrick Mahomes play in the Super Bowl. Or not letting Caitlin Clark play in the NCAA Tournament. Or not inviting Taylor Swift to the Grammy’s. Or trying to host a Bravo reunion without Andy Cohen. 

It’s not happening. 

Scottie was booked at 7:28 a.m. and released at 8:40 a.m. By 9:51 a.m., Scottie's PR team had issued a statement, which was immediately sent to the PGA, and to ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington, who was at the scene when the event unfolded and thus was the reporter to break the story. 

Scottie’s statement is below: 

Here’s why this matters: 

  1. The first impressive thing to note was how swiftly Scottie’s PR team was able to draft and issue a statement. While the internet had gotten wind of what happened, there were still a lot of uncertainties and speculation within the coverage, so by acting quickly, they were able to get in front of the news cycle and get his version of the story distributed to the most important players in the space at that time - the PGA and ESPN. 

  1. By issuing a statement before the story could crystalize in the news, Scottie’s team effectively shaped the narrative of what had happened. They issued the statement before any press conferences were held, which meant that there was only one version of the story that people were aware of - Scottie’s version. This is huge. It not only helped him from the public standpoint, but it will also likely help him from the legal side of things. The officer in question didn’t have his bodycam on - a whiff that he’s being disciplined for - so the only footage of the incident that exists is from a light post across the street (which clearly shows embellishment on the officer’s part). This means that for the 8.5 million viewers of the championship and pretty much everyone on TikTok, there is only one side of the story - Scottie’s side. 

@hollydawnkuni

Had to tell me immediately 📢#scottyscheffler #golfwife #golfwidow #husbandwifecomedy #husbandsoftiktok #golfersoftiktok

It’s likely that Scottie’s charges will be reduced, if not dropped entirely. But if they were to make it to court, good luck finding someone in Louisville who hasn’t already been influenced by Scottie’s statement and narrative of how things unfolded that morning. 

Scottie’s PR team’s response shows the value in acting quickly and intentionally when it comes to a crisis response. In this case, it does seem like it was largely a misunderstanding. But do we just think that because we’ve only heard one side of the story?

Until next week,

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