Billy Horschel helps remove ‘Just Stop Oil’ protester Friday at The Open

HOYLAKE, England – Billy Horschel helped R&A security officials remove a protestor from the 17th green during Friday’s second round of The Open Championship.

Three protestors from “Just Stop Oil” disrupted play early Friday with a smoke flare and orange powder. The group tweeted: “Three Just Stop Oil supporters have disrupted The British Open – they demand that the UK government halts all new oil and gas projects.”

Horschel declined to comment on the incident, but video shows him assisting security guards remove a female protester from the green. Two men and two women were arrested at the scene on suspicion of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and public nuisance, SkySports reported.

Full-field scores from the 151st Open Championship

Earlier this week R&A CEO Martin Slumbers revealed that officials were aware of a “credible threat” of a potential protest during last year’s Open at St. Andrews and that a plan was in place for potential protests this year.

“We have significant security procedures in place. We work clearly with the law enforcement agencies, and we’ll wait and see what happens,” Slumbers said. “You will have seen that we advised the players, please don’t get involved, and I stand by that. We have enough things in place to be able to deal with it.”