CROMWELL, Conn. — The setting was as serene as a scene can be with tens of thousands of sports fans packed together jockeying for position.

They stood on toes, or tried to get a little higher on the hill to get a look at the pristine 18th green for the climactic putts of the Travelers Championship.

Then six climate protesters from out of state broke through the crowd and the ropes and soon police were all over the green chasing them down, tackling them.

“I mean, I was scared for my life,” Akshay Bhatia, one of the three golfers set to finish the Travelers Championship, told CBS Sports. “I didn’t really know what was happening, four or five people come running out on the green, it was kind of weird but thankfully cops were there and kept us safe.”

The climate protesters were spraying a powdery, chalky substance that marred the TV picture, but didn’t do any damage to the manicured surface. After Tom Kim made his birdie putt to force a playoff, the TPC River Highlands agronomy team was able to blow off the chalk, hardly the toughest task they faced during the week, and play resumed.

“I thought it was a dream for a second,” Kim said. “Like the security guards were tackling people and people were getting arrested, like it’s just, it’s really hard to see nowadays. It kind of felt like it took my mind off of the moment and just kind of realized what was happening and obviously even though those people did something bad, you still don’t want them to get hurt, because obviously the police are trying to protect the players and stuff. I get it, but you still don’t want people to get hurt and I think it just kind of personally just took my mind away from golf a little bit and worried about something else.”

Things were brought under control within a few minutes. Kim and Scheffler, close friends, seemed to joke with each other to calm themselves down, then Kim made his putt to tie the tournament, but bogeyed the first playoff hole to open the way for Scheffler to win his sixth tournament of the year.

Late Sunday, Cromwell police, with help from officers from neighboring towns, identified the protesters as Mark Graham, 55, of Brooklyn, N.Y., Jeffrey Marsar, 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y., Sayak Mukhopadhyay, 51, of White Plains, N.Y., William Regan, 45, of Washington, D.C., Emily Smith, 35, of Maryland, N.Y., and Lydia Wooley, 25, of Brooklyn, N.Y. Last September, Mukhopadhyay was arrested at the U.S. Open tennis tournament when he glued his feet to the ground at Arthur Ashe Stadium, also in a climate-related protest. All six were charged Sunday with first-degree criminal mischief, first-degree criminal trespass and breach of peace, processed and released on a $5,000 bond and are scheduled to appear at Middletown Superior Court on July 1.

Tournament officials would not comment or offer further details on the ongoing investigation of the incident. As for possible changes in security measures for future tournaments, “we look at everything every year,” tournament director Nathan Grube said.

Though the incident deflected some attention, the last of the season’s eight PGA Signature Events, with $20 million in prize money, including $3.6 million to Scheffler, achieved its goals. More than a half dozen of the top golfers in the world were within a shot or two of the top as things came to a head Sunday, before Scheffler and Kim separated themselves to finish 22-under, a shot shy of Keegan Bradley’s course record set in 2023.

The charity take

Though organizers don’t offer estimates, it was clear attendance for the week was as high as it has ever been, in the hundreds of thousands, and the crowd along the 18th hole for the finish was enormous, the largest Grube could remember in his 19 years with the event.

The Travelers, which donates 100% of net proceeds to local charities, raised a record $3.2 million for 170 nonprofit organizations in the region. The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford is the primary recipient.

“Going into it, we knew we were going to have the best field we’ve ever had,” Grube said. “The goal and the hope was we would translate that into an historic year for charity and it was.”

With the strength of the field, Grube said, more companies became involved because their clients wanted to get in. “That’s one little mark,” Grube said. “When you get inbound increase that percolates up from the client level.”

The weather

Everything was accomplished with searing, sometimes dangerous heat during the week, and severe thunderstorms that halted play for several hours Friday and Saturday, flooding parts of the course.

“The weather was a little bit weird, we hadn’t had this much disrupted weather in recent years,” said Andy Bessette of The Travelers’ executive VP and chief administrative officer, “but I was impressed with the number of fans who came back (when play resumed) to watch the last four or five holes. That was great to see. The PGA staff here and (course superintendent) Jason (Cannata) and his staff were tremendous.”

The first thunderstorm rolled through Friday at 3 p.m. with about an hour of golf left to play. Whenever lightning is detected close by, the course must be cleared. Joe Halvorson, the PGA’s traveling meteorologist, was on site to offer guidance.

“Our agronomy team has to be prepared for those scenarios,” said David Corrado, the TPC River Highlands GM. “First and foremost it’s all about safety of all the spectators. Once the storm is starting to subside, it’s about assessing the golf course and what needs to take place to get play back out there.”

After it stopped, the course was readied, standing water squeegeed away, bunkers re-raked, and the second round was finished just before sunset at about 8:30 p.m.

On Saturday, a more violent storm passed through. There were lightning strikes near the course as the long delay was waited out. The TV cameras caught one worker, knee deep in water, reaching down to find the drain cover at the bottom of a bunker on the 15th hole. Once he removed it, the water ran out, a scene repeated all over the course.

The club’s agronomy team has about 30 staffers, and for the Travelers about 30 more, some professionals, some volunteers, are brought in for such emergencies. Play resumed at 6:20 p.m. Saturday and, again, finished just before sundown.

“We had to get 11 holes ready in about an hour’s time,” Corrado said. “It was all hands on deck. So proud of the team and how quickly they reacted, there are a lot of moving parts in that moment. Jason Cannata and his assistants were like orchestra conductors, with 50-something people you’re trying to direct over a multi-acre property.”

With more storms expected late Sunday, start times were moved up and twosomes became threesomes. The tournament ended about 4:30 p.m., just before more lightning was detected that would have halted play.

Bessette and Grube were compiling their list of things to look at following the tournament, including wider paths and better ways to move such large crowds around the course, , and adding cooling stations.

The Field

The field included all of the top 50 golfers eligible to play, excluding players who jumped to the LIV Golf circuit, such as U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau. The one exception was Rory McIlroy, who lost the U.S. Open after missing two short putts and pulled out of the Travelers the following day.

“He texted me Monday morning, he’s a good friend,” Bessette said. “He said, ‘Andy, I have to recharge.’ And I said, we’re going to be here for years to come and you’re going to be here for years to come.”

Negotiations are ongoing between LIV and the PGA that could one day bring all the top golfers back. The leadership now includes Red Sox owner John Henry and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

“Working on the model of PGA golf is very important, but I’m confident we have the right people,” Bessette said.

On the age-old question, whether Tiger Woods will ever grace the Travelers with his participation? The PGA has granted him a special exemption to play in Signature Events, and the Travelers, signed with The Tour through 2030, will be a Signature Event again in 2025.

“Being able to give him the opportunity to compete in these events,” PGA commissioner Jay Monahan said, “any event he’s ever played in he’s made it bigger, he’s made it better, he’s drawn more eyeballs to it, and I think just as an organization we wanted to celebrate his exceptionalism in that manner.”

Bessette will continue the hunt for Tiger, though odds get longer as he gets older and plays fewer tournaments.

“He’s very supportive and positive about our tournament,” Bessette said. “We never give up, we’ll keep trying on that one forever.”

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