‘Brought shame’: Celtic supporters stage bizarre tennis-ball protest at the Old Course

The third round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course in St Andrews was interrupted on Saturday by a bizarre protest: Celtic supporters threw dozens of tennis balls onto the course.

The balls landed near Dermot Desmond and Brooks Koepka, who were playing together in the event’s team pro-am, and bounced in different directions. Each ball carried a sticker featuring a crossed-out image of Desmond. The Celtic Fans Collective, a supporters’ group, posted video of the incident on X.

The protest was directed at Desmond, not Koepka, and had nothing to do with golf. Desmond is an Irish billionaire and longtime majority shareholder of Celtic, the Glasgow-based club that competes in the Scottish Premiership.

The Celtic Fans Collective said supporters were protesting what they described as Desmond’s lack of accountability in running the club. “Dermot Desmond has essentially been allowed to run Celtic Football Club whilst using his wealth to hide from supporters and accountability. Fans took the chance today to send a message that this arrangement cannot continue,” the group said in a statement.

Celtic condemned the incident “in the strongest terms” and called it a premeditated action. The club said those responsible had “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 club stressed that the protest took place outside Celtic and football—at a major event in another sport, held at one of the world’s most renowned golf courses—and targeted an individual participating in the event in a private capacity.

Celtic announced that it was ending all contact with the Celtic Fans Collective and would no longer recognise the group as representative of the club’s supporters. Any individuals or groups found to have planned, facilitated or participated in the protest will be banned indefinitely from Celtic Park.