Environmental Protestors Took Over An Elite Golf Course In The Hamptons (Rumored $1 Million Membership Fee) In What Was A Surreal Scene

Truly a surreal video that's making the rounds on social media. A group of environmental protestors ran onto Sebonack Golf Club in the Southampton, N.Y., one of the best and most expensive golf clubs in the world—it's rumored to have a $1 million initiation fee just to join, before you pay monthly dues—and yelled a bunch of things about how golf is ruining the world and how we need to tax the rich. They talked shit to golfers, got in club employees' faces, the whole nine yards. 

Gotta admit, I got a good laugh out of "that was terrible! That was the worst I've ever seen! You paid a million dollars to hit like that?"

They then started chanting about "Shinnecock land"...the backstory on that: Sebonack sits directly next to two other powerhouse Hamptons clubs: Shinnecock Golf Club and National Golf Club. All three of these are located right next to the Shinnecock Indian Reservation on land that, like much of this country, was once Native American land. From the New York Times:

"The first white settlers arrived in the Town of Southampton, the oldest English settlement in New York, in 1640. In the centuries since then, the tribe has had repeated disputes with the town and has seen its land steadily shrink to its current 900-acre reservation.

"It has sued seeking reparations and the return of thousands of acres, including the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, where the U.S. Open has been played five times."

Environmentalists aren't fans of golf because courses use a bunch of water, and they particularly hate private clubs because they put walls around beautiful outdoor places. Malcolm Gladwell did a whole podcast on this that I will not link to because I hate it so much. 

But yeah, just very surreal scenes. The guys playing at this club are the richest and most elite people on the planet, and they probably thought they were headed out for a nice quiet round. Instead they got a guy in a penguin suit, with a pitchfork, yelling about taxes, Native Americans and his shitty putting stroke.