Watch: Protesters cause chaos at American and European Tour golf events

Environmental protesters caused chaos on the two main male professional tours on Sunday with demonstrations that caused significant delays on the American and European circuits.

While the blockade outside the KLM Open did not happen on the field of play – although it still led to a 120-minute hiatus in the final round – the events at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut were a lot more dramatic, occurring in a tense finale won by world No 1 Scottie Scheffler.

On the 18th green, as the crowds in the grandstands were awaiting the denouement of the $20 million (£15.8 million) tournament, multiple activists representing global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion stormed the green, tipping coloured powder on the putting surface before being removed by police.

The protesters wore T-shirts bearing the words “No Golf On A Dead Planet”. Earlier, the same group took credit for forcing the suspension at the International club near Amsterdam. Its focus was clearly on the Dutch airline. Travelers, the sponsor of the TPC River Highlands tournament, was the first in the insurance industry to offer policies for cars and air travel.

Extinction Rebellion was quick to put its name to the latter upheaval that will cause alarm for sporting authorities staging big events this summer.

“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.