There was plenty of drama at the end of the 2024 Travelers Championship, and it all began with the final group at the 18th hole.
Tom Kim needed to shoot one better than Scottie Scheffler on the final hole to force a playoff. He positioned himself to do so with a solid approach that nearly saw him hole out from the fairway.
Kim just needed to convert his short birdie putt after that to put the pressure on Scheffler, who looked poised to make par on the hole.
However, Kim's efforts to do so were delayed as some additional drama unfolded on the green.
It had nothing to do with the players fighting for position on a crowded leaderboard. Instead, a group of six protesters stormed the 18th green, disrupting play by spraying paint and powder.
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PGA Tour protesters, explained
The protesters were said to be members of "Just Stop Oil," a British environmental activism group dedicated to fighting the effects of climate change. At least one protester was clad in a shirt that read "No Golf on a Dead Planet" as they took to the green and the surrounding bunkers.
With Scottie Scheffler leading by one shot and Tom Kim 10 feet away for a tying birdie...
— Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) June 23, 2024
Protesters run all over the 18th green at the @PGATOUR Travelers Championship. Five in all taken away by police.
Paint left on the green. But no marker or ball disturbed. pic.twitter.com/nA7y1MgbVH
Security acted quickly to remove the protesters — who were heckled relentlessly by the crowd on hand — and escorted them off the course at TPC River Highlands. Meanwhile, workers at the course cleared as much of the paint as they could with leafblowers before Scheffler and Kim finished the final hole.
The protest bore similarities to one organized by Just Stop Oil at Stonehenge on Wednesday. Both protests saw the group spray orange powder paint on the surface of their intended targets.
The demonstration didn't have a noticeable impact on Kim or Scheffler. Kim made his birdie putt to force a playoff, and he admitted the protests helped take the pressure off the putt.
NEEDED IT, GOT IT! 💪
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) June 23, 2024
Tom Kim birdies the 72nd hole to force a playoff @TravelersChamp pic.twitter.com/Phj5DQEgdf
"It kind of slowed things down," Kim said of the protests, per ESPN. "It took the meaning of the putt away for a second. Because for the past 17 and a half holes all you're thinking about is golf, and suddenly when that happens your mind goes into a complete -- like, you're almost not even playing golf anymore. I thought it was a dream for a second."
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While Kim may have benefitted from that, he also acknowledged the damage caused by the protesters to the 18th green.
"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. "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."
The tournament organizers recognized that damage, and that's part of the reason they moved the location of the 18th hole before the playoff. They didn't want the damaged portions of the green to influence the contest.
Ultimately, Scheffler won the tournament on the first playoff hole. It marked his sixth victory of the PGA Tour season while Kim will take some solace in earning his best finish of the 2024 campaign.
