Six protesters sprinted onto the 18th green at the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship on Sunday before Scottie Scheffler attempted a tournament-clinching putt, briefly spraying smoke and powder before cops tackled them—erupting spectators into applause and chants of “USA.”
Sunday’s incident saw six protesters arrested, authorities said, matching the number of demonstrators cameras captured sprinting onto and near the green—to a flurry of boos and expletives—before they were tackled and cuffed by cops within 30 seconds.
The tournament, which was held in Connecticut, was in its final moments when the protesters raided the green. They each wore white shirts emblazoned with “NO GOLF ON A DEAD PLANET” and carried smoke bombs that left white and red residue on the putting surface, which were removed with leaf blowers.
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“Get out of here fuckers,” one man was heard yelling at the group.
The protesters caused an approximately five-minute delay, with Scheffler barely missing his putt once play resumed. Police in Cromwell, Connecticut, did not immediately respond to a request from The Daily Beast seeking information on what charges the protesters face.
Like Scheffler, Akshay Bhatia was also preparing for a putt on the course’s final hole—trying to wrap up a fifth place finish. He said he initially feared for his life as the chaos broke out.
“I was scared for my life,” he said. “I didn’t even really know what was happening.”
He later referred to the incident as “just weird stuff.”
Scheffler, who infamously had an awkward run-in with police last month that saw him arrested but his charges later dropped, praised the officers who rushed to shut down the demonstration in a matter of seconds.
“From my point of view, they got it taken care of pretty dang fast, and so we were very grateful for that,” he said.
Scheffler also called the ordeal “weird” and conceded that it “rattled” him a bit. He still went on to win the tournament in a playoff over South Korea’s Tom Kim, who appeared livid that the tournament was interrupted.
“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,” he said.
It’s the latest stunt from climate protesters coming a week after members of Britain’s Just Stop Oil group vandalized Stonehenge with orange cornstarch.
