A group of anti-climate change protesters stormed on Sunday as leaders were lining up their putts on the final hole of the Travelers Championship in Connecticut, delaying the finish by about five minutes.
The protesters sprayed white and red powder, leaving stains on the grass before Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim and Akshay Bhatia completed their rounds. At least one of the group wore a white T-shirt that read: “NO WAVE ON A DEAD PLANET.”
“I mean, I was scared for my life,” Bhatia said. “I actually didn’t even know what happened. Suddenly four or five people come running onto the green… I was in shock and my heart rate was high. It got low and when things like that happened I just panicked, just trying to get to where everyone was. It was hard to do it, I think it was just weird.
After the protesters were tackled and taken away by police, Scheffler missed a potential title shot from 26 feet before tapping in for par. Kim, who was one stroke behind heading into the final hole, sank a 10-foot birdie putt to tie with Scheffler and send the tournament to a sudden death play-off.
Kim said the break actually helped his game.
“It’s slowed things down a little bit,” he said. “It took away the meaning of the putt for a moment. Because all you’re thinking about is golf for the last 17 and a half holes, and when that happens, your thoughts suddenly go into complete disarray – like you’re barely even playing golf anymore. For a moment I thought it was a dream.”
Scheffler, the world No. 1, won with a par on the first playoff hole, the 18th. After the players finished according to regular rules, workers came out with leaf blowers to clean up the remaining powder, and the hole’s location was moved before the play-off.
The crowd around the 18th green heckled protesters with chants of “USA,” shouted profanities and cheered police who intervened.
“Luckily for Tom and me we were both there, we’re good friends, and so we were able to sit there earlier and relax each other a little bit, because you don’t really know what’s going on, you don’t know what’s going on . I don’t really understand the situation,” Scheffler said after his victory. “People are running around everywhere and you don’t really know what’s going to happen. So it was a bit confusing. Fortunately, the police did an excellent job getting everything sorted out quickly. I don’t know how fast it was, but it seemed very fast to us. So we are very grateful to them.”
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Climate protesters have interrupted major U.S. sporting events in the past. Last September, the US Open tennis semi-final between Coco Gauff and Karolína Muchová was interrupted, with one of the protesters gluing his feet to the floor of the stands at Arthur Ashe Stadium.