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Episode One Hundred Fifty Five: Class Act · The Death Of Journalism

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Welcome to episode number one hundred and fifty five of the Death of Journalism podcast.
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My name is John Zigler. I'm your host on today's show. Probably
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the most shocking development in the history of major championship golf, the Harrison Butcker
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controversy explodes, much like I told you that it would. The Trump trial
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appears to be winding down after last week's Michael Cohen crescendo, and we will
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finally apparently have at least two presidential debates in twenty twenty four. Now,
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Normally, when I choose the topics for this podcast, and there's something that
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I am particularly interested, like, for instance, the subject of golf,
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I am very hesitant to put it at the top of the podcast. I
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generally, if you've noticed, I generally put the topics that I feel like
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are special to my particular interest that I'm not sure other people might be concer
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earned about. At the end of the podcast, I figure, if you've
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gone two two and a half hours in and you're still listening, you probably
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don't care, and you probably think, well, if zig finds it interesting,
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that maybe I will too. Hopefully that's the case. But this particular
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episode, I really don't have any qualms or concerns or guilt about talking about
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golf right off the bat, even though I'm a golfer, a huge golf
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fan, not as big as I used to be, but you know,
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I consider myself to be still a tournament golfer, even at the age of
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fifty seven, and I have a vast knowledge of the of the game,
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of the sport of golf, and I have had a lot of experience in
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it. You know, in this particular situation, I basically feel like I
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have to talk about what happened at the PGA Championship at Valhalla in Louisville,
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Kentucky now in episode number one hundred and fifty four. For the record,
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by the way, this is being taped before the final round of that tournament.
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We're changing our schedule again this week because of logistical issues. So just
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for the record and full transparency, if something happened on Sunday, then you
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know, I didn't put it in the podcast this week, and that includes
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whatever would occur the final day of the PGA Championship. But in the last
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episode of the podcast, I talked a lot about how the sport of golf
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is in disarray, and I went through a whole litany of data points indicating
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just how crazy and disrupted and dysfunctional the world of golf is mostly surrounding the
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entire PGA Tour versus live conflict and never ending debate and a deal that never
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ends up getting made, a merger that never ends up happening, and how
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I'm very, very pessimistic about the future of the sport, whether there's a
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deal or not, because I know there's not going to be a really good
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deal, at least not for the sport, at least not for the fans.
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And there's just way too more bunch money involved in the entire enterprise,
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and it's killing the sport. If you missed that, go back to episode
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number one hundred and fifty four and check that out. But I had no
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idea, no idea that the disruption and the chaos of the sport that I
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was referring to in episode number one hundred and fifty four would be completely and
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totally dwarfed by what happened. I mean, it's just absolutely unbelievable that in
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Round number two of the PGA Championship what occurred ended up being a major international
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news story the likes of which no one could possibly ever predicted. I mean,
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this was as shocking as the Oj Simpson Bronco chase. When I'm referring
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to what you probably already know that I'm referring to, which is what happened
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with regard to Scottie Scheffler. Scotti Scheffler, the number one player in the
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world by far, the Masters champion just a month ago. He was up
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at the top of the leader board heading into the second round and all hell
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almost literally broke loose if you somehow missed it. Basically what occurred was that
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very early in the morning, in the dark and in the rain outside of
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Valhalla, outside of Louisville, Kentucky, where I once was a radio and
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TV talk show host, and I know the area very well, and I
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played Valhalla many many times, and unfortunately there was a horrendous tragedy that occurred.
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There was a sixty nine year old man who had volunteered to do security
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at the event. I'm sure he was looking forward to this, probably all
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year long. He was retired, just wanted to do a good thing,
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wanted to be part of the PGA Championship, and he ended up being killed
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by a shuttle bus as I guess you would call it a a pedestrian accident,
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and that obviously caused an enormous amount of chaos outside the gates of Valhalla
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Golf Club. And what ensued was that there were roads that were shut down,
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there was increased security, there was confusion as to where people were supposed
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to go, because again it's early in the morning, it's raining, it's
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dark, a man just lost his life, there's an enormous amount of police
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presence, and the players were already having trouble getting in to Valhalla, which
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didn't really surprise me very much. There's a lot of different aspects to this
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story, and one of them is that Valhalla is not in Louisville. People
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don't understand that it's actually not even close to Louisville. It's referred to as
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being in Louisville, but it's not. It's not even in the suburbs of
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Louisville, and it's way outside of what is known as the city of Louisville.
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And there's only one main road to get you out there and goes right
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past Valhalla Golf Club. And frankly, I think they sold too many tickets
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for this thing. I think they have new ownership in Valhalla. The PGA
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of America sold it a couple of years ago to some local owners. I
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think they were trying to show off and show how many people they could have
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show up at a Louisville major championship and show the world just how much Louisville
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loves this and maybe they can get another PGA championship again in the future.
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Well, it was already way too much congestion. Who knows that may have
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indirectly resulted in the death of this man. We don't know very much about
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that situation at all at this point. But what we do know is that
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after the death of this poor sixty nine year old guy who was there to
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work security at the PGA Championship, Scotty Scheffler realized that he was going to
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have a tough time getting into the entrance of the golf club, and apparently
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he riding in a courtesy car. He got some direction, at least based
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upon his story from law enforcement, that it was okay for him to basically
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cut the line, that's what it sounds like. And then there was another
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police officer who was not in the loop on this and decided that no Scottie
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Scheffler did not have the right to sneak in the back way basically to get
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into the golf club so that he could prepare for his second round. And
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while we still don't have all anywhere close to all the details, and there's
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apparently no video of this because the police officer did not have his camera on,
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that's apparently the story at least as of this taping, so we're never
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going to know for sure what really happened. What it sounds like happened was
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that the police officer did something very stupid and basically jumped on Scotty Scheffler's car
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to stop him from going in a direction that he didn't think he should be
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going, and Scotty Scheffler apparently thought he had permission to be going. And
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from then on there's a lot of room for speculation what I think happened.
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What I think happened was that this police officer had no idea who was in
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that car. I think that Scotty Scheffler, remember he's not that well known
8:30
outside the golf world yet, and he just grew a beard. Very few
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people are even mentioning this part of the story. He just grew a beard,
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So even if you might recognize Scotty Scheffler, you might not recognize the
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guy with a beard. And again, remember it's dark and it's rainy,
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and everybody's a bit panic stricken by the fact that a man just lost his
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life, and everyone's obviously got a lot more tension than they would under different
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circumstances. And I think that the police officer overreacted and tried, for some
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reason to stop Scheffler from going where he was going with his body. And
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then apparently he fell into the mud or to the ground and he ripped his
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pants or destroyed his pants. That got a lot of mockery because in the
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police report it was noted that the policeman's pants were beyond repair to these eighty
9:28
dollars pants, that somehow this was an indication of a great travesty and this
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was clear evidence of damage and that Scheffler had allegedly done something wrong. Well,
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no, how I interpret that is the police officer was but hurt,
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He felt like an idiot, He was pissed off that this had happened to
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him, He was embarrassed, and he took it out on the guy who
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was driving the car and he may or may not have known that the guy
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that was driving the car was the number one player the world, one of
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the leaders of the tournament, and one of the most mild mannered, trusted
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and respected people in all of sports. A guy who is a devout Christian,
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a guy who literally just had his first child. I mean, there's
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zero evidence or even remote logic that Scottie Scheffler would ever do something on purpose
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that he was told not to do by law enforcement. He has no known
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temper at all. I mean, he's famously calm, cool, collected,
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and as enormously strong moral principles. It's clear. It's obvious. This guy
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walks the walk and doesn't just talk to talk. This guy is the real
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deal when it comes to his Christianity. That could not be more obvious.
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It's in his DNA. Everybody around him knows this. Even if you don't
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believe, you know, I'm as cynical as they get. Even if you
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believe that there are frauds out there, all you got to do is just
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watch a couple of his press conferences. This guy is for real. There's
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zero chance, zero that he did something purposely wrong, and in fact,
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I actually think and This is another aspect that nobody is bringing up that I'm
11:26
aware of. I actually think that Scotti Scheffler, being as humble as he
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is and as unassuming as he is, may have also contributed to what ended
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up happening because he was not going to play the do you know who I
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Am? Card, which made it more likely that the police officer didn't know
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who he was. And in case you're wondering, well, why does that
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matter who he is? What matters a huge amount. First of all,
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it makes it clear that he has every right to get into the golf tournament.
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And two, if you know anything about him, there's a level of
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trust there that he's not going to do something stupid. He's the number one
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player in the world. This is not John Daly. We're talking about who
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you might not trust because he might do something really colossally stupid. This is
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Scotty frickin' Scheffler. And I don't believe that the police officer could possibly have
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fully understood who he was dealing with to react the way that he did.
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And I think he was butt hurt, and I think he took it out
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on Scheffler and decided to throw the book at him, and somehow Scotty Scheffler
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ended up getting charged with four different counts, including felony assault of a police
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officer, when all we apparently know is that the police officer tried to effectively
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assault Scotty Scheffler's courtesy car. That's what it sounds like what happened. And
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then he ended up up getting you know, as I said, butt hurt
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because he destroyed his pants. That's to me, the most logical interpretation of
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what happened here. Now, how it is that nobody stepped in and said,
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whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa? What are we doing here?
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How it got to the point where Scotti Scheffler was being forced to take a
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mug shot in an orange jumpsuit before someone said, wait a minute, what's
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going on here? What are we doing? Is beyond remarkable. There's there's
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a story to be told there, because there had to be cooler heads at
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the police department going, wait a minute, what are we doing here?
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And there is some evidence of that because he was booked and released in remarkably
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swift fashion. I mean, I've been in a similar situation, remarkably similar
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situation which I'm going to get to momentarily, I think I have some expertise
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in this particular circumstance that nobody else probably does, but I'll hold off on
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that for just a moment. But he got out of there pretty quick.
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In fact, the owner of Valhalla, one of the owners, came to
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pick him up and bring him back to the golf course just to make sure
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there were no further screw ups. And if the tournament had not been delayed
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by over an hour because of the death of the volunteer, Scottie Scheffler,
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even as quickly as they got him out, would not have made his second
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round tea time. Now is possible that they may they could have made some
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unprecedented exception, it's within the rules, and they may have allowed him to
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tee off later. I think that probably would have happened. But and there's
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no connection that we know of between the PGA of America deciding that they were
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going to delay tea times and their knowledge that Scottie Scheffler had been arrested and
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taken to jail. That appears to have been completely coincidental. They did not
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apparently have that knowledge when they made that very key decision. That decision was
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made seemingly one out of respect for the man who died, but two because
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of the understanding that that situation had created a further traffic problem and a traffic
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circulation problem outside the club, and they wanted to allow some more time for
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people to get to where they needed to go. So you have this unbelievably.
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I mean, when I say OJ Simpson Bronco Chase, I'm talking that's
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how bizarre this was, at least from my perspective. I mean, I
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live on the West Coast, so I wake up and I you know,
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I got up pretty early, and you know, I go to Twitter,
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and I'm just kind of retweeting a couple of things that I see, and
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then all of a sudden, I see Scottiffler's fucking much Shout what what?
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This can't possibly be real, Scotty fucking Scheffler, What are you talking about?
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There's no possible way, And now he's racing to the golf course to
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try to make his second round tea time. This was as incomprehensible as anything
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that I have ever seen in the world of golf, period, maybe the
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world of sports. And it was so obvious to me that this was a
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situation that was not Scotty Scheffler's fault. There was no scenario he made any
16:40
sense where Scheffler was to blame here. Now, is it possible that he
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misunderstood a command. Is it possible that he got confused? Sure that that
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is certainly possible. But as far as ill intent, there is zero chance,
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in my mind zero that Scottie Scheffler had any ill intent in what happened
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here. And I am exceedingly willing to believe that the police officer screwed the
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pooch on this in a huge way, and I felt that way immediately,
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but I felt that way even more strongly when I had some extensive communication with
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Terry Miners, my former colleague who's a radio talk show host legend in Louisville,
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also a member at Valhalla, a longtime member a Valhalla. In fact,
17:27
he and I once played in the member guest together at Valhalla many many
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years ago before he betrayed me, and then we became friends many years later.
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But he was one hundred percent on my side, and he has extremely
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good connections within the Louisville Police Department and at Valhalla. And so the fact
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that Terry was agreeing with my take pretty much made me one hundred percent certain
17:53
that this was largely, if not totally, the police officer's fault. And
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so then we have this incredibly bizarre spectacle where the super Christian number one player
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in the world of golf is rushing to get to his delayed tea time for
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the second round of the PGA Championship, and everyone's wondering how he's going to
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handle this, right, because, based upon what I believe happened, Scottie
18:22
Shuffler has every reason in the world to be pissed off. I mean,
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I would have been beyond irate, beyond irate Donald Trump. Can you imagine
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if this something like this had happened to Donald Trump, he would have been
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beyond irate. He would have attacked immediately, the Louisville Police Department, the
18:48
crappy PGA of America, you know, all the people that didn't treat him
18:52
properly. This would have been a full blown didn't you know who I was?
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Situation. There would have been anger, and by the way, under
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the scenario that I'm painting, at least some of it would have been justified.
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But you know, there's no question that's how Trump would have handled it,
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by the way, I probably would have Simihlat similarly. I mean I
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would have been absolutely furious at what happened. And to use other examples,
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can you imagine if this occurred to Lebron James. Heaven forbid, this happened
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to Lebron James, this would have been and you know George Floyd's situation.
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There would have been racial implications. This would have been a national travesty.
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This would have been way worse than the situation that resulted in the volunteer dying
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just an hour beforehand. I mean, you know, given Lebron James's ego,
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and given his view of race and society and how everyone's out to get
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him, I mean, this would have been this would have been evidence that
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the entire city of Louisville was racist if this somehow happened to Lebron James.
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And instead when it came to Scotti Scheffler, there was nothing like that in
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his reaction. Nothing, no anger, no, you know, he didn't
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express any frustration. On the golf course, of course, he played absolutely
20:21
amazingly well. I have to believe that for him to shoot sixty six that
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day, which he did five under par while in contention after enduring what he
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did in that morning, the chaos, the confusion, the frustration, the
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anger that, at least for a mere mortal he had to be experiencing,
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is probably one of the greatest rounds in the history of golf. Probably one
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of the greatest rounds in the history of golf, because golf is obviously an
20:55
incredibly mental and psychological game, and for you to have your routine that disrupted,
21:00
your entire worldview shattered, to be that confused, to be that disrespected,
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to be facing a felony charge a week after you your wife has just
21:14
given birth to your first son, there's just it's impossible, I think for
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the average person to fully comprehend how difficult what Scottie Scheffler did in that second
21:26
round really was. In fact, the best way to prove what he did
21:32
was amazing was that in round number three he basically shit the bed and was
21:37
taken out of the golf tournament because he just didn't have it. Played his
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worst round of the year by far, and as a golfer, this didn't
21:48
surprise me that much. I was surprised how well he played in the second
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round under all those horrific circumstances, but I could at least see it because
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he's getting through it on an adrenaline high and he's basically got the greatest excuse
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in the world, so there's almost no pressure and he's just so numb.
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He's almost playing unconsciously, which can sometimes be a very good thing. But
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then the next day you have the crash, You have the adrenaline crash.
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Reality sets in. Maybe you're a little bit more irritated, maybe you're a
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little bit more angry, maybe you're like even Scotty Scheffler, maybe what the
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fuck was that? This is bullshit? That I have to deal with this,
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and that takes its toll. And it's the second day where you really
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see it. And that's what took Scotty Scheffler out of the tournament on Saturday.
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But on Friday, not only did he play extremely well, he proved
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what kind of a man he really is. I had respect for Scotty Scheffler
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before, one is a player too as a man, but the way he
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handled Friday was so unbelievably great and so worthy of praise and respect. I
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used it with my older daughter Grace. I told her the whole story because
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she was aware of what was happening before she went to school, and then
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when she came home from school, I explained to her exactly what Scotti Scheffler
23:17
had done on and off the golf course. You know, at first,
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I think I tried to fake her out by saying he was throwing clubs and
23:26
cursing, and then in the press conference afterwards, he was blaming the Louisville
23:30
Police Department and saying this is all bullshit. And she immediately figured out that
23:34
I was lying, that I was not telling the truth, and so I
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did tell her the truth, which was that he was classy all the way.
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He was very concerned about the family of the man who died. He
23:48
never once blamed anybody else. He didn't curse, he didn't attack the Louisville
23:53
Police Department, he didn't make any excuses. He tried to explain his side
23:59
of the story. But you know, he also took partial responsibility for what
24:03
he said was a big misunderstanding. To me, it was total class.
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Class is something that unfortunately is in very very short supply in our culture,
24:15
especially when it comes to big time athletes, and Scottie Scheffler showed it in
24:22
spades and then he got done with that press conference, which he knocked out
24:26
of the park, he went and practiced for a little bit, and then
24:30
he went and signed autographs until everybody that wanted an autograph was taken care of.
24:34
And by the way, what I actually posted a video on Twitter of
24:37
him signing autographs. He wasn't just signing autographs. There was one moment where
24:44
someone had hand him a hat to sign, which he signed, and he
24:48
was going to give it back, but the person had turned away from him
24:52
because they were trying to take a selfie of him and themselves while he was
24:59
signing it. Now, you know, that's above and beyond the call of
25:02
duty on your best day, especially at the PGA Championship. But on your
25:07
worst day, any mere mortal would have gone, hey, lady, here's
25:11
your hat. You know, let's go. Instead, I could tell Scotty
25:17
Scheffer stopped and smiled and posed for the woman's picture and then made sure she
25:22
had the hat that he had just signed. I mean, and he was
25:26
doing this for everybody. Now there are those who say, well, but
25:30
John, you know he knows the cameras are on. No, No,
25:33
there was no need to do that. And by the way, in a
25:37
weird way. That kind of presumes that you think Scotty Scheffler was guilty of
25:41
something that day, whether he had something to hide or make up for See,
25:47
I'm not buying that narrative at all. I think Scotty Scheffler was the
25:51
aggrieved party here. Now, there are a lot of pro live golf assholes
25:56
on social media, and these people aren't really horrendous human beings. I mean,
26:00
Scotti Scheffler is the best that we've got when it comes to major public
26:04
figures in humanity. And you know, these pro live golf, mostly anonymous
26:11
Twitter accounts, those are the dregs of humanity, the worst that humanity has
26:17
to offer, the dumbest that humanity has to offer. And they were attacking
26:22
Scotty Scheffler all weekend long because they wanted to presume that he had done something
26:26
wrong. Why because I guess somehow it makes the PGA Tour look bad and
26:32
therefore makes live golf look good. But I'm not buying that narrative even a
26:40
little bit. Scotty Scheffler, it's going to be found, did nothing significantly
26:45
wrong here. He is never going to be convicted of any of these charges.
26:49
I would like to believe that they're going to be dropped in short order,
26:56
hopefully maybe even before you've got a chance to listen to this podcast.
26:59
I don't know. I mean that he has an arraignment schedule for Tuesdays,
27:02
so that might be a little bit too optimistic, but I just have an
27:06
enormous amount of respect for the way that Scottie Scheffler handled a ridiculously difficult situation,
27:12
one which I do have a bit of a very bizarre insight into because
27:18
I'm probably one of the very very few people that has ever also been arrested
27:25
and handcuffed just before playing around a golf at a major championship golf course.
27:32
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