Will Zalatoris says players have discussed postponing and canceling the second round of the PGA Championship

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A small group of players have discussed not playing the second round of the PGA Championship as scheduled after the death of a pedestrian outside Valhalla Golf Club, as well as the arrest of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.

Will Zalatoris detailed the 20-30 minute conversation, which took place in the Valhalla locker room, to a small group of reporters after his round on Friday afternoon. He said the group of players, whom he did not name, considered contacting the PGA of America about canceling or delaying Friday’s match.

“Some players were talking and asking if we should play today,” Zalatoris said. “At one point there was a group of guys in the locker room talking about going to the PGA of America about it, but I think he was dead in the water in the locker room. It was weird. We didn’t know… when Scotty was going to come out, whatever… the details.”

Tee times were delayed by an hour and 20 minutes on Friday after John Mills, who worked for a tournament vendor, was struck and killed by a shuttle bus. The PGA has moved first tee times from 7:15 a.m. ET to 8:35.

Schaeffler, who was caught at the entrance to Valhalla at 6:20 a.m. while trying to navigate traffic, was released at 9:12 and achieved a tee time of 10:08 but had a significantly shorter practice routine.

Zalatoris said players were concerned about Mills’ death and the detention of Scheffler, the current Masters champion. The Dallas resident, who has known Scheffler since they were children, explained how troubled the players were before the second round of the tournament. He did not mention the names of the players who conducted the group discussion in the locker room.

“The death happened, maybe let’s not try to rush this. It happened right outside the gates. Let’s put this off three to four hours or something like that and we can make it up over the weekend. When that happened with Scotty,” Zalatoris said. “We were in shock and didn’t know what to do or think or say. “In 20/20 hindsight, there might have been a four or five hour delay just to allow (the Louisville City Police Department) to do their job and allow them to deal with everything that happened because Losing a life and let’s get back to as normal as possible, unfortunately the world No. 1 got caught. This is the world of golf to a T now. “There is no such thing as normal life.”

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(Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)