Climate change protestors invaded ithe 18th green during the final round of the Travelers Championship Sunday from multiple angles and sprayed white and red colored residue on the green to interrupt the tournament.
The six protestors who invaded the Cromwell, Connecticut course were quickly subdued by police officers and removed from the course. Tournament winner Scottie Scheffler and runner-up Tom Kim were able to finish putting on the final hole and the incident did not appear to affect either golfer.
Scheffler would defeat Kim in a one-hole playoff. However, Akshay Bhatia, who finished tied for fifth in the tournament, said he was scared for his life when he was interviewed by Amanda Balionis of CBS and during his press conference after the conclusion of his round.
“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.
“I was in shock and my heart rate was high. It got low and then once that kind of happened I was just freaked out, I just tried get over where everyone was. It was hard to do it, I think it was just weird.”
A group called Extinction Rebellion took credit for the protest. The group said a lightning strike that injured two fans during Saturday’s round at Travelers was an example of “increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather conditions.”
Scheffler wins again despite invasive action at Travelers
Even though the final round was interrupted and the 18th green was disfigured by climate change protestors, tournament winner Scottie Scheffler was not thrown off his game.
He fired a final round score 0f 65, and that allowed him to reach 22 under par. Kim also kept his cool and birdied the final hole to tie Scheffler, and the two engaged in a playoff to decide the tournament. Scheffler won the playoff on the first hole.
The superstar golfer has won six tournament this year, and it is the most wins in a season before July since Arnold Palmer won six in 1962.
Scheffler said the speed that the Cromwell police officers demonstrated in ending the protest made it much easier to continue playing.
“From my point of view, they got it taken care of pretty dang fast, and so we were very grateful for that,” Scheffler said.
“When something like that happens, you don't really know what's happening, so it can kind of rattle you a little bit. 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. I felt like Tom and I both tried to calm each other down so we could give it our best shot there on 18.”
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