CONNECTICUT – Six activists ran onto the 18th green at TPC R iver Highlands to interrupt the conclusion of the Travelers Championship on June 23 in Cromwell, Connecticut.
The final group of golfers, including tournament leader Scottie Scheffler and second-placed Tom Kim of South Korea, were reading their putts on the final hole of regulation when people ran out of the gallery and onto the field of play. They carried smoke bombs that spread red and white powdered residue onto the green, including near the cup. Some wore shirts that displayed the words “NO GOLF ON A DEAD PLANET.”
The six people were detained by police providing security for the event. Fans chanted “U-S-A” as the protestors were led off the course.
Not long after they were removed, Scheffler narrowly missed a birdie putt that would have won the tournament. Kim – who, mere moments before the protest, nearly holed his approach shot – then converted his 10-foot birdie attempt to force a two-man play-off.
The playoff was due to begin at the 18th hole, so tournament officials set up a new hole location on the green away from the powder while maintenance workers vacuumed up what they could. Scheffler went on to win on the first play-off hole.
An organisation called Extinction Rebellion put out a news release taking credit for the protest. The group claimed that the protest did not target an individual person or organisation, but rather “highlights the worldwide danger of climate breakdown.”
Extinction Rebellion called the protestors’ actions “a disruption far less severe than that of any extreme weather event”.
Akshay Bhatia was the third player in the final group.
“I mean, I was scared for my life,” Bhatia said. “I didn’t even really know what was happening. All of a sudden, four, five people come out running on the green. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of weird. But thankfully the cops were there and kept us safe, because that’s, you know, that’s just weird stuff.”
Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, also called the sequence of events “weird” and thanked the police officers for their work.
“It seemed to go by really quickly to us,” Scheffler said. “But when something like that happens, you don’t really know what’s happening, so it can kind of rattle you a little bit, just because there’s people running around the green and there’s police officers running around the green and you don’t know if they’re peaceful, you don’t know what they’re doing, you have no idea what’s going on, so it can be a bit stressful.”
Extinction Rebellion took advantage of a lightning strike that hit TPC River Highlands on June 22, which resulted in two people being sent to the hospital.
“Some people at this championship were injured by lightning yesterday, and it could’ve been far worse than it was. What must happen to make people get it?“ an activist named Lydia Woolley was quoted as saying in the release. REUTERS