CROMWELL, Conn. — Scottie Scheffler had to wait out a climate protest on the 18th green and Tom Kim’s tying birdie on the last hole of regulation.
Those events only delayed what seems to be inevitable on the PGA Tour this season: the best golfer in the world walking off with the trophy.
Shrugging off a protest that interrupted the tournament on the 72nd hole while the leaders were lining up their putts, Scheffler won the Travelers Championship on the first extra hole on Sunday for his sixth win of the year, the most in one season on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods had six in 2009.
“When something like that happens, you don’t really know what’s happening. So it can kind of rattle you a little bit,” said Scheffler, whose reign at No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking shows no signs of stopping.
“That can be a stressful situation, and you would hate for the tournament to end on something weird happening because of a situation like that. Tom and I both tried to calm each other down so we could give it our best shot there on 18.”
Scheffler shot a 5-under-par 65 in the closing round for a 22-under 258 total at TPC River Highlands, and Kim matched him with a final-round 66.
Tom Hoge (62) and South Korea’s Sungjae Im tied for third at 20 under, with Akshay Bhatia (69) Patrick Cantlay (65), Tony Finau (66) and Justin Thomas (66) two strokes further back to share fifth.
Bhatia was also in the final group that was disrupted by the protest.
“I was scared for my life,” he said. “I didn’t even really know what was happening. … But thankfully, the cops were there and kept us safe, because that’s, you know, that’s just weird stuff.”
It was Scheffler’s fourth victory of the year in the PGA Tour’s $20 million signature events with limited fields, earning him a payday of $3.6 million. The 28-year-old Texan also won The Players Championship in March and the Masters in April — and still has two months to go before the season wraps up.
Coming off a tie for 41st in the U.S. Open — by far his worst finish of the year — Scheffler trailed Kim by three strokes after the first round at TPC River Highlands, by two after the second round and by one heading to the tee on Sunday.
Kim was seeking his fourth PGA Tour win overall and first this year.
“As much as I love him, I would have loved to take that away from him,” said the Kim, a 22-year-old from South Korea who shares a birthday and a friendship with Scheffler. “But I’m happy for him, and after I tapped out, after he tapped out, he said some really nice words, and it meant a lot to me.”
Scheffler had a one-stroke lead heading to the 18th green when six people stormed the course, waving smoke bombs that left red-and-white powdery residue on the putting surface. Some wore white T-shirts with the words “NO GOLF ON A DEAD PLANET” in black lettering. They were tackled by police and taken off.
The activist group Extinction Rebellion, which has a history of disrupting events around the world, claimed responsibility for the protest. In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, the group blamed climate change for an electrical storm that injured two people at a home near the course on Saturday.
After a delay of about five minutes as tournament officials used towels and blowers to remove the powder and any other marks that might affect play, Scheffler left a 26-foot putt from the fringe on the edge of the cup before tapping in for par.
Kim then made a 10-foot birdie putt to force the playoff, which had the hole location on the 18th moved to avoid the parts of the green affected by the protesters.
“It’s fun competing against your friends,” Scheffler said. “But at the same time, it’s difficult. Because part of me wants him to miss the putt, and part of me wants him to make the putt. … But he should remember that putt he made on 18, because it was pretty special. And he’s a great player and a great champion.”
Chattanooga resident Stephan Jaeger — whose win at the Houston Open in March had Scheffler as one of the runners-up, ending the No. 1 star’s bid for three straight victories — tied for 31st at 10 under after a closing 67 on Sunday. Fellow Baylor School graduate Harris English (68) shared 63rd place at 2 under.
Hatton by a bunch
COLLEGE GROVE, Tenn. — Tyrrell Hatton won the inaugural LIV Golf Nashville tournament, easily holding off big-name challengers Jon Rahm of Spain and reigning U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau for the 32-year-old Englishman’s first victory since the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January 2021.
Hatton took a three-stroke lead into the final round of the 54-hole and closed with a 6-under 65 to polish off a six-stroke win at The Grove. Hatton had eight birdies and two bogeys on Sunday to finish at 19-under 194 while trying to avoid looking at a leaderboard until the 17th green.
“It was nice to play the last few holes and it not be super tight,” said Hatton, who tied for 26th at the U.S. Open last weekend. “I guess having not won for three and a half years … you wonder if you’ll be able to do it in some ways. So I was happy I was able to prove it to myself.”
This was Hatton’s ninth event since joining the LIV Golf League, and a tie for fourth had been his best finish. His lone PGA Tour victory was the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational. With captain Rahm shooting a 68, Hatton helped Legion XIII win its third team title.
England’s Sam Horsfield made a late run with five birdies over his final nine holes for a 65 and finished alone in second. DeChambeau (68) and Rahm shared third place with Chile’s Joaquin Niemann (62) and England’s Lee Westwood (66) at 12 under.
A sudden downpour suspended play with five holes left for 22 minutes before the sun popped back out to conclude the final five holes on a sweltering day in Tennessee.
LIV Golf photo by Jon Ferrey via AP / Tyrrell Hatton waves after making a putt to complete his win at the LIV Golf Nashville tournament on Sunday in College Grove, Tenn.Yang’s breakthrough
SAMAMMISH, Wash. — South Korea’s Amy Yang built a huge lead and survived a couple of late mistakes to win her long-awaited first major title, a three-shot victory in the Women’s PGA Championship.
Yang closed with a par round of 72 at Sahalee Country Club to finish the 72-hole tournament at 7-under 281. She was nearly flawless for the first 15 holes Sunday and reached 10 under for the tournament for a seven-shot lead before running into a little bit of trouble — but none of her pursuers was able to mount a significant charge.
At age 34, Yang is the oldest major winner on the LPGA Tour since Angela Stanford won the 2018 Evian Championship at age 40. Anna Nordqvist had recently turned 34 when she won the Women’s British Open in 2021.
This was Yang’s 75th major start, the most before a player’s first major title since Stanford, who was playing her 76th.
Yang’s sixth LPGA Tour victory was her first since last year’s CME Group Tour Championship, which was also the most recent victory by a South Korean player. She earned a spot in next month’s Paris Olympics, where she will represent South Korea for the third time.
Twice earlier in her career, Yang held the 54-hole lead in a major only to fall short. At the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open, Yang was tied with Michelle Wie going into the final round but shot a 74 as Wie won. A year later in the same tournament, Yang had a three-shot advantage, but In Gee Chun closed out a 66 to win by one.
This time, Lilia Vu and Jin Young Ko each shot a 71 to tie for second at 4 under. Vu shot three rounds under par, but she couldn’t overcome a 75 in the first round.
Yang made five bogeys over her first 69 holes of the tourney before she three-putted the 16th on Sunday, then made a double bogey on No. 17. She steadied herself with a perfect tee shot on the par-5 18th, leading to a two-putt par and a massive celebration on the green.
AP photo by Lindsey Wasson / Amy Yang is doused while holding her putter after winning the Women’s PGA Championship on Sunday at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash.Harrington saves it
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — Padraig Harrington won the Dick’s Open for the third consecutive year, making a key par save on the par-3 17th to hold on for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot victory over Canada’s Mike Weir (67).
The 52-year-old Irishman captured his eighth PGA Tour Champions title and his second of the year.
Weir was playing two groups ahead of Harrington and closed to within one shot by making birdie on the 17th hole. Harrington missed the green to the right and faced a difficult lie, with the ball sitting down on a slight slope.
He chipped it about eight feet past the hole and made the par putt, and then closed out with a par on the 18th at En-Joie Golf Club to finish the 54-hole tournament at 15-under 201. The victory came one week after Harrington was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“I suppose I’m good value for money,” Harrington said. “When I was coming down that stretch, you’re not really sure what you’re going to get. I’m either going to hit it stone dead or I’m going to have to get it up and down out of some weird place.
“It’s entertaining. I wish it wasn’t as entertaining.”
Ken Duke (68), Ken Tanigawa (70) and Australia’s Mark Hensby (66) tied for third at 13 under. Tanigawa was part of a three-way tie for the 36-hole lead with Harrington and Stephen Ames.
Migliozzi takes playoff
AMSTERDAM — Guido Migliozzi holed a seven-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th and then birdied it twice more in extra holes to win the DP World Tour’s KLM Open in a three-man playoff.
The 27-year-old Italian birdied two of his last three holes for a 1-under 70, joining Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult and England’s Joe Dean, who earlier birdied the 18th and each posted a 68. They finished 72 holes at The International at 11-under 273.
All three players birdied the 18th in the first playoff hole, but Migliozzi was the only player who managed a birdie on the second extra hole, two-putting from about 60 feet for his fourth overall win on the Europe-based circuit but his first in nearly two years.