On Saturday at the Old Course at St. Andrews, a DP World Tour golf tournament was interrupted by soccer protesters who threw tennis balls to express their grievances.
You’re forgiven if you have to read that twice.
The tournament was the DP World Tour’s annual Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Not only is the Dunhill Links played at iconic courses — the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns — it includes a concurrent pro-am competition featuring business tycoons, celebrities, star athletes, players’ family members and more.
That last point is crucial to this story, because the subject of the protesters’ ire at St. Andrews was one of the pro-am competitors: Celtic Football Club owner Dermot Desmond.
One primary witness to the bizarre scene that broke out Saturday at St. Andrews was PGA Tour star Brooks Koepka. The five-time major champion is playing this week’s Dunhill Links with Desmond as his partner.
While they were playing the 15th green at the Old Course during Saturday’s third round, dozens of tennis balls started soaring through the air, landing near them and bouncing in all directions. Each ball had stickers attached to it featuring a crossed-out picture of Desmond.
A video of the incident was posted to X by the Celtic Fans Collective, which you can view here or below.
As previously stated, the protest was directed at Desmond, not Koepka, and it had nothing to do with golf.
Desmond is an Irish billionaire and the longtime majority shareholder of Celtic Football Club. Celtic is based in Glasgow, Scotland, and competes in the Scottish Premiership.
It turns out disgruntled Celtic fans were behind the bizarre action.
The group that claimed responsibility for the protest was the Celtic Fans Collective, the supporters’ group for the club.
Based on a statement released by the group, fans were expressing their distaste with what they claim is a lack of accountability from Desmond while running the team.
“Dermot Desmond has essentially been allowed to run Celtic Football Club whilst using his wealth to hide from supporters and accountability,” the group’s statement read. “Fans took the chance today to send a message that this arrangement cannot continue.”
In its own statement following the St. Andrews protest, the Celtic Football Club said it “condemns in the strongest terms the deliberate disruption which took place today at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews,” calling it a “premeditated action.”
The club then lashed out at the Celtic Fans Collective, saying, “those responsible have brought shame upon the name of Celtic Football Club and upon a reputation which generations of Celtic supporters have spent more than a century building.”
The statement went on to distinguish between past protests that occurred at Celtic events and this one, which happened on a big stage of another pro sport at one of golf’s most cherished venues.
“Today represents a further and more serious escalation,” the club’s statement read. “This time, the disruption was taken entirely outside Celtic and outside football, intruding upon an unrelated sporting event and targeting an individual while participating in that event in a private capacity.”
The statement continued: “The Club will not be intimidated or coerced by organized acts of disruption… The Club no longer accepts that the Celtic Fans Collective can credibly claim to represent the wider Celtic support.”
Finally, the club declared that it is severing any and all ties to the Celtic Fans Collective as a result of this incident. Furthermore, any individuals directly involved in the protest will be “banned indefinitely” from the football club’s home stadium.
“The conduct of the past year, culminating in today’s events, has demonstrated that the basis for constructive engagement has been fundamentally undermined. Accordingly, the Club will no longer recognise the Celtic Fans Collective as a representative body speaking on behalf of Celtic supporters and will cease all engagement with the Collective with immediate effect,” the statement read. “The Club is examining today’s events. Any individuals or groups who are established to be involved in planning, facilitating or participating in this action will be banned indefinitely from Celtic Park.”
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