No matter what side of the climate change argument or political aisle you reside, the message was worth hearing.
The problem was the execution and the venue. When five environmental activists stormed the 18th green during the final round of the Travelers Championship, they blew the opportunity to make a worthwhile statement for their cause. All they brought was chaos and fear.
"I mean, I was scared for my life," said Akshay Bhatia, who was paired with Tom Kim and Scottie Scheffler during their duel. "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."
The five activists from Extinction Rebellion marked the green with a paint-like, powdery substance, but were immediately tackled and handcuffed by police. They're probably proud that I'm writing this column about their message: "No Golf on a Dead Planet." Instead I'm condemning their actions. The laws of this country allow for peaceful protest. Even if no one was injured and nothing was damaged, this wasn't "peaceful". It was reckless.
It also could very well have derailed a career-defining moment for Tom Kim, who impressively holed a putt after the interruption to force a playoff with Scheffler. For the playoff, the hole had to be moved away from the markings on the green, so a new cup was cut closer to the front bunker by PGA TOUR officials. Kim eventually found that bunker and lost to Scheffler, who won for the sixth time this season.
Professional golfers are among the most exposed professional athletes in their arenas of competition. They play outside on big venues hundreds of acres in size. There's plenty of security at every tournament, but the players can't help but feel vulnerable now and then to the whims of the crowd. Only a small rope and some volunteers stand between them and random strangers. It's a normal emotional reaction to feel overwhelmed in that instance.
"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," Scheffler recalled. "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."
Golf an easy target for environmental activists
Golf has become a popular target for environmental protests. Spectators are searched for weapons, but the events are large-scale outdoor gatherings that make it easier to blend in and slip through the cracks. The same group protested outside the gates of the DP World Tour's KLM Open Sunday in the Netherlands, delaying the final round by two hours. The group, Just Stop Oil, targeted both The Open at Royal Liverpool and the AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath in 2023. Arrests were made at both tournaments, according to Golf Monthly.
A press release by Extinction Rebellion sent to media after the Travelers Championship went on the attack against golf and its environmental practices. "Golf courses have long paid lip service to the need to reduce the game’s grave environmental costs, which include profligate use of water and carbon-intensive fertilizers, as well as wanton destruction of forestlands," it read. "However, the golf world’s minor interventions do not rise to the scale of the catastrophe. They are, in fact, a resounding failure."
While I do agree that the world doesn't need too many more golf courses - especially exclusive private ones that are just money-makers for the developers and playgrounds for the rich and elite - I'd say that the industry has done more to help environmental causes the past 10 years than many protesters realize.
Golf courses are using less water and fertilizer than ever before thanks to improvements in grasses and incentives to reduce turf in out-of-play areas. The United States Golf Association and R&A are rolling back the distance the ball flies so courses can thrive in a smaller footprint. Is there more golf could do? Absolutely, but the industry is trying harder than most.
I live in California where I worry every day about climate change. Our winter storms are getting more violent and the wildfire season is longer and more deadly than ever. I just had my insurance company drop my homeowner's coverage. I'm personally connected to the warnings and message that the protesters are sending.
I agree that we need to keep the conversation top of mind, but it must be done in the proper way. Don't rush the green and interrupt the players. Professional golf tournaments aren't the time or place to champion the cause. Holding signs and marching outside of major corporations and Capitol Hill? Those are the most appropriate battle grounds.
Have an opinion on the incident at the Travelers Championship? Let us know in the comments below.
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Bringing notice to the environment is fine, but we already know about water issues on golf courses. I don't agree with protesting on the golf course, these matters are better resolved with action consisting of resolution plans and working together to resolve environmental problems.
Tournament golf is the figure head of the whole sport, which is what they really are attacking. A local privately owned public course that I play on is an Audubon wildlife habitat. The poison ivy rash that I, and the resident pro, have contracted there, attest to it's naturalistic condition. If the golf course wasn't there, the fairways and surrounding area would be apartments, hotels, & gas stations. Golf courses are no more a waste of space than are parks and play grounds. Especially public courses, provide those of us not rich exposer to grounds of a kind that were the playgrounds only of estate owners in the past. Charging for play, takes the burden of upkeep off the taxpayer. Everyone wins. I could go on about how it provides exercise and social exposure to senoir citizens more so than a senior center.
I think everyone is already aware of climate change. So we don't need to raise awareness anymore. I think they just wanted attention.
There is an appropriate time and place for everything and I think we all agree that this venue is not it. I think this actually hurts the cause of these misguided individuals. Their lack of disgression displayed here only suggests to the public that they are a dangerous nuisance with bad intentions that could possibly be directed by outside organizations seeking to do harm to America and to do harm to one of the finer and more wholesome avenues of rest, relaxation, and quality of life. Participation in the game of golf actually leads to overall better physical and mental health. I agree with most of this article but science does not support the notion that wildfires in California have anything to do with "man-made" climate change. Neither do earthquakes and tornados. Whether it is the destruction of historic art, statues, spray painting buildings, or trying to ruin a wholesome golf tournament, it has more to do with purposefully tearing down Western civilization then it does with supporting a good cause.
I’ve been environmentally conscious and doing my part since a classmate in HS presented a paper on the erosion of the ozone layer due to human activity. While I sympathize with the cause of this group, I don’t support the tactics they employed at the Travelers Championship. Law enforcement had to deploy necessary action (well done) to quickly quell the situation which made it incident look ‘violent’, diminishing the effect of their protest. They would have garnered a lot more support and empathy by protesting at or near the entrance to the event where 10’s of thousands of spectators would have been exposed to their mantra without a shameful disruption of an event that must have been very alarming to the spectators and even more so to the 3 pros and their caddies on the green.
And I thought the yelling and shouting around the tee box when golfers hit their tee shot ("get in the hole" on a par 5?, "mashed potato"?, etc.) was getting out of control?!?!? I care about the environment as much as the next person, but behavior like this will make it less likely that my consciousness and awareness will be raised about their cause, when a "legitimate protest" warrants my attention.
Pure stupidity. These actions make me much less likely to be sympathetic to their cause and more likely to care less. How immature!
PGA has to move ropes back between green/tees. 100's of fans sticking their hands out just to touch golfers (if yer older than 14, thats plain weird). But remember Monica Seles....there's just too many nuts out there. Safety of the players comes first.