Six environmental activists disrupted a professional golf tournament in Connecticut on Sunday by spraying red and white powder on the 18th green while the leaders were lining up their putts.
The unidentified people burst out of the crowd at the TPC River Highlands golf club in Cromwell and left stains on the grass before being tackled by police and taken away, the Associated Press reported.
Video clips and photos showed some of them were wearing T-shirts with the logo of the decentralized Extinction Rebellion group.
🚨#BREAKING: Climate activists throw smoke grenades and spray paint as they storm the green at the 18th hole of the PGA Tour Travelers Championship⁰
— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) June 23, 2024
📌#Cromwell | #Connecticut⁰⁰Just Moments ago, Just Stop Oil protesters climate activists, ran with spray paint and threw smoke… pic.twitter.com/FPuVCHtB8A
Its supporters use what the group calls "non-violent direct action" to urge governmental action against climate change.
One man appeared to be waving a lit smoke bomb as the Travelers Championship was winding down Sunday afternoon.
The tournament was delayed for about five minutes as workers used leaf blowers to clean the putting green.
The disruption took place during the final hole of regulation play and when the round resumed, Scottie Scheffler — who was in first place — missed a 26-foot putt and tapped in for par.
Tom Kim, who was trailing by one stroke, sank a 10-foot birdie putt to tie Scheffler and force a sudden-death playoff.
After the hole was moved to avoid the damaged parts of the green, Scheffler won by two-putting for par after Kim's first shot became embedded in a bunker, AP said.
The victory marked Scheffler's sixth of the season, tying the record Tiger Woods set in 2009.
Scheffler, the world's top-ranked golfer, still has two months to better that mark.
Scheffler's worst finish this season came last month after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer when he tried to drive into the Valhalla Country Club in Louisville, Kentucky, to play in the PGA Championship.
Cops had set up a cordon after a man working for a tournament vendor was struck and killed by a shuttle bus.
