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Scottie Scheffler survived a playoff with Tom Kim to win his sixth PGA Tour title of 2024.

Sadly, however, that was not the biggest story from the final Travelers Championship.

Multiple protestors representing the global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion stormed the 18th hole at TPC River Highlands as Scheffler, Kim and Akshay Bhatia approached, pouring coloured powder on the putting surface before being removed by police.

Many of the protestors were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “No Golf On A Dead Planet”.

The green was cleared of the substance ahead of the playoff, won with a par by Scheffler who becomes the first player since Arnold Palmer in 1962 to win six times before July on the PGA Tour.

Shortly after the incident occurred, Extinction Rebellion released a statement, which said: “On Sunday June 23, in a disruption far less severe than that of any extreme weather event, notably the previous day’s lightning strike, Extinction Rebellion activists interrupted play at Travelers Championship, as Scottie Scheffler was playing at the 18th hole”.

“With this action, Extinction Rebellion is NOT protesting any individual or organisation. Rather, the protest highlights the worldwide danger of climate breakdown.”

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It went on: “This golf protest action and other, similar ones are the recourse of a movement that has tried all other approaches. Voting, marching, petitioning, and lobbying have all failed, and failed again. The science makes clear that the window of time remaining for drastic reductions in carbon emissions is rapidly closing, and that if we don’t make such cuts we’ll face catastrophes far greater even than what we’re seeing now. At this point, the sole option remaining is to engage in unconventional forms of protest that bring attention to the severity of the climate emergency.”

Speaking to reporters after sealing his latest win, Scheffler described the incident as “a bit weird”.

“I saw one person out of the corner of my eye, and then I saw about five police officers sprinting around,” said the world No.1 “From my point of view, they got it taken care of pretty dang fast, and so we were very grateful for that. It seemed to go by really quickly to us.

“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.

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“But fortunately, I was out there, and you could kind of see me and Akshay talking to each other for a minute, me and Tom talking to each other for a minute, basically just trying to calm down.

“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, and so I felt like Tom and I both tried to calm each other down so we could give it our best shot there on 18.”

Bhatia added: “I was scared for my life. I didn’t even really know what was happening. All of a sudden, four, five people come out running on the green. 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.”

Kim said: “I don’t know what they had, but they left a lot of marks on the greens, which is not right for us players, especially when two guys are trying to win a golf tournament. But I’m very grateful for the Tour and the Tour security for handling that really well and making us players feel a lot safer.”

Earlier on Sunday, Extinction Rebellion protestors had also caused the final round tee times at the KLM Open on the DP World Tour to be delayed after they blocked the entrance to host golf club, The International.

topics

Travelers Championship Extinction Rebellion

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor