Climate change protestors invaded the final round of the PGA Tour event on Sunday.
The Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn., had to be briefly delayed by the group that ran out from the crowd on the 18th green.
The drama began on the 18th hole, with Tom Kim trailing Scottie Scheffler by a stroke and needing a birdie — and Scheffler par — to force a playoff. Kim hit what had to be one of the best approach shots of his life from 131 yards out — the third bounce on the green landed an inch to the right of the cup, and settled 10 feet away.
As Scheffler was lining up his first putt five protestors stormed the 18th green from all angles. They were quickly apprehended by local police and pinned to the green before being taken away, but not before leaving white and red colored residue on the green.
Kim made his birdie putt to force the playoff, but tournament officials determined to move the pin position for the playoff, taking it closer to the front edge of the green and away from the most significant damage.
“The security guards were tackling people and people were getting arrested, like it’s just, it’s really hard to see nowadays,” Kim said. “… It kind of felt like it took my mind off of the moment and just kind of realized what was happening and obviously even though those people did something bad, you still don’t want them to get hurt … the police are trying to protect the players and stuff, I get it, but you still don’t want people to get hurt and I think it just kind of personally just took my mind away from golf a little bit and worried about something else.”
Extinction Rebellion took credit for the protest, citing a lightning strike that injured two fans during Saturday’s round at Travelers as an example of “increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather conditions.”
“We are all watching the climate catastrophe unfold at warp speed. Our relatively mild disruption of the Travelers Championship calls attention to nature’s much more severe and long-lasting disruptions,” said Miles Grant, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion, in a statement.
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(Top photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
