During the second day of the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, American golfer Billy Horschel stepped in to assist in the removal of protesters who stormed the 17th green.
Horschel, aged 36, took it upon himself to escort a woman donning a Just Stop Oil T-shirt, which was splattered with orange paint, off the Hoylake links and handed her over to a waiting police officer. Two other individuals wearing similar T-shirts were also apprehended and led away in handcuffs by multiple officers.
Just Stop Oil, the environmental group responsible for the protest, confirmed that a total of three supporters were involved in the incident. They ran onto hole 17 around 12.20 pm during The Open at Royal Liverpool, setting off a smoke flare and throwing orange powder paint on the green before being removed by security.
Greenkeeping staff promptly arrived at the scene and used leaf-blowers to clear the powdered paint from the hole.
The orginisation tweeted about the incident and said,"Oil in One: Just Stop Oil Disrupt The Open. Three Just Stop Oil Supporters have disrupted the The British Open - they demand that the UK government halts all new oil and gas projects."
📸 Cameramen ignore Just Stop Oil supporters, just like our government ignores the climate crisis.
🖋 Pick the side of life - sign up to take action at https://t.co/7BzUVS02dZ pic.twitter.com/dBnPqkjzmo— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) July 21, 2023
They followed up the tweet with,"There will be no more holes in one when our society collapses. We must stop our government’s 100 new oil and gas licenses before they go on to cause more harm."
Throughout the summer, this environmental group had targeted various high-profile sporting events, such as the second Ashes Test at Lords and Wimbledon. At the latter, England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow physically handled one of the pitch invaders to the boundary.
Open organisers were well-prepared for potential protests and had implemented additional security measures. However, they had advised players not to engage with anyone who might enter the course, a recommendation which Horschel chose to disregard in this situation.
Interestingly, it was revealed this week that the R&A had received a credible threat concerning Just Stop Oil protesters targeting the previous year's Open at St Andrews. Fortunately, no action materialized as security was significantly enhanced.
In response to this latest incident, police have taken the measure of deploying one officer to each green on the course to prevent further disruptions.
Both the R&A and Merseyside Police have been reached out to for comment, while Horschel declined to speak after completing his round.
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