Scottie Scheffler had to wait out a climate protest on the 18th green and Tom Kim’s tying birdie on the last hole of regulation.

Those events only delayed what seems to be inevitable on the PGA Tour this season: the best golfer in the world walking off with the trophy.

Shrugging off a protest that interrupted the tournament on the 72nd hole while the leaders were lining up their putts, Scheffler won the Travelers Championship on the first hole of sudden death Sunday for his sixth win of the year, the most in one season on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods had six in 2009.

“When something like that happens, you don’t really know what’s happening, So it can kind of rattle you a little bit,” Scheffler said.

“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,” he said. “Tom and I both tried to calm each other down so we could give it our best shot there on 18.”

Scheffler closed with a 5-under 65 and a 22-under 258 total at the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., and Kim matched him with a final-round 66.

Tom Hoge and Sungjae Im tied for third, two shots back, with Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas and Akshay Bhatia tied for fifth at 18 under. Bhatia was also in the final group that was disrupted by the protest.

“I was scared for my life,” he said. “I didn’t even really know what was happening. ... But thankfully the cops were there and kept us safe, because that’s, you know, that’s just weird stuff.”

It was Scheffler’s fourth victory of the year in the tour’s $20 million, limited-field signature events, earning him a payday of $3.6 million. He also won the Masters and The Players Championship.

And Scheffler still has two months to go.

“As much as I love him, I would have loved to take that away from him,” said Kim, who shares a birthday and a friendship with Scheffler. “But I’m happy for him, and after I tapped out, after he tapped out, he said some really nice words and it meant a lot to me.”

Scheffler had a one-stroke lead heading to the 18th green on Sunday when six people stormed the course, waving smoke bombs that left a red and white powdery residue on the putting surface. Some wore white T-shirts with the words “NO GOLF ON A DEAD PLANET” in black lettering.

They were tackled by police and taken off.

The activist group Extinction Rebellion, which has a history of disrupting events around the world, claimed responsibility for the protest.

After a delay of about five minutes, when tournament officials used towels and blowers to remove the powder and any other marks that might affect play, Scheffler left a 26-foot putt from the fringe on the edge of the cup and tapped in for par.

Kim then made a 10-foot birdie putt for a 66 to match Scheffler.

The hole location on the 18th was moved for the playoff to avoid the parts of the green affected by the protesters.

Scheffler hit his approach in the playoff to 11 feet while Kim found a greenside bunker. Kim’s blast from a plugged lie ran 36 feet past the hole, leaving Scheffler with an easy two-putt par for the victory.

LPGA Tour

Amy Yang built a huge lead and survived a couple of late mistakes to win her long-awaited first major title, a three-shot victory in the KMPG Women’s PGA Championship in Sammamish, Wash.

Yang closed with an even-par 72 at Sahalee to finish at 7-under 281. She was nearly flawless for the first 15 holes and reached 10 under for the tournament for a seven-shot lead before running into a little bit of trouble. But none of her pursuers was able to mount a significant charge.

At 34, Yang is the oldest major winner on the LPGA Tour since Angela Stanford won the 2018 Evian Championship at age 40. Anna Nordqvist had recently turned 34 when she won the Women’s British Open in 2021.

This was Yang’s 75th major start, the most before a player’s first major title since Stanford, who was playing her 76th.

Yang’s sixth LPGA victory was her first since last year’s CME Group Tour Championship, which was also the most recent victory by a South Korean player. She earned a spot in the Paris Olympics, where she will represent South Korea for the third time.

LIV Golf

Tyrrell Hatton won the inaugural LIV Golf Nashville event, easily holding off Jon Rahm and two-time U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau for the Englishman’s first victory since January 2021 at Abu Dhabi.

Hatton took a three-stroke lead into the round, and shot a 6-under 65 to polish off a six-stroke win at The Grove. Hatton had eight birdies and two bogeys to finish at 19-under 194.

“It was nice to play the last few holes and it not be super tight,” Hatton said. “I guess having not won for three and a half years ... you wonder if you’ll be able to do it in some ways. So I was happy I was able to prove it to myself.”

This was Hatton’s ninth event since joining LIV Golf, and a tie for fourth had been his best finish. His lone PGA victory was the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational. With captain Rahm shooting a 68, Hatton helped Legion XIII also win its third team title.

PGA Tour Champions

Padraig Harrington won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open for the third consecutive year, making a key par save on the par-3 17th to hold on for a 4-under 68 and a one-shot victory over Mike Weir in Endicott, N.Y.

Harrington captured his eighth PGA Tour Champions title and his second of the year.

DP World Tour

Guido Migliozzi of Italy holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th and then birdied it twice more in extra holes to win the KLM Open in a three-man playoff in Amsterdam.

Migliozzi now has four victories on the DP World Tour (European).