“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,” a statement read, referring to the storm which saw three injured during the third round.
Five individuals jumped from the galleries, carrying cans with green and red smoke, which they sprayed on to the green. They were tackled by police and security guards, although one temporarily escaped by jumping into a bunker. They were all handcuffed and taken away in police cars before the action resumed. Akshay Bhatia, the PGA Tour winner who was playing with Scheffler, detailed his shock.
“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 just weird stuff.”
Scheffler concurred. “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,” he said.
“You could kind of see me and Akshay talking to each other for a minute, basically just trying to calm down. A stressful situation.”
Inevitably, the scenes overshadowed Scheffler’s victory after last week’s poor display at the US Open. He beat Korean Tom Kim in a play-off to lift his sixth title of the year.