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It was an eventful week at the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Webb Simpson got his first win since 2018 but only after surviving a playoff against Tony Finau.
That was just one of the numbers that tells the story of the week at TPC Scottsdale.
A third 62
Finau shot a 62 on Saturday to vault up the leaderboard and claim the third-round lead. It was his third 62 of the season, most on the PGA Tour.
57 straight without a bogey
Finau bogeyed the fourth hole on Thursday and then went 57 straight holes posting par or better. Along the way, he posted 14 birdies and an eagle before bogeying the eighth hole on Sunday.
Three days, three aces
There are four par 3s at TPC Scottsdale. The most famous, of course, is the 16th. But on the first three days of the event, golfers aced the others, one per day, in order.
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On Thursday, J.B. Holmes aced the fourth hole. On Friday, Scott Piercy got one on the seventh hole. On Saturday, Webb Simpson got his third hole-in-one on the 12th hole.
That set the stage for some Sunday dramatics. But it wasn’t meant to be. When Simpson, the last golfer to tee off on 16 for the week, hit the green but didn’t make a 1, the ace-less streak on 16 continued. Francesco Molinari in 2015 had the last hole-in-one there.
Four days, four birdies on 16
He didn’t ace the 16th but Denny McCarthy did birdie it on Sunday, giving him a 2 on the hole in all four rounds.
He’s the first to go four-for-four on birdies at No. 16 since 2003 when Luke Donald did it.
32 straight pars
Harold Varner III had the most ho-hum week going at TPC Scottsdale. His first round Thursday was notable, however, because it consisted of 18 pars.
The par streak continued on Friday for Varner, who parred his first 14 holes.
His par on the 10th hole broke the old PGA Tour record in the Shotlink era.
His birdie on the 15th hole broke the string, but left Varner at 32 straight pars.
It’s the most consecutive pars to open a tournament.
Three par 5s, three eagles
On Saturday, Collin Morikawa tied the course record with eagles on all three of the par 5s.
That hadn’t happened since 1987, ten years before Morikawa was born.
He eagled the third from the bunker and then completed the hat trick with eagles at Nos. 13 and 15, putting his name in the tournament record books. What’s more, Morikawa has yet to miss a cut in 17 events as a pro.
8:24 a.m.
A few golfers paid tribute to Kobe Bryant during the week. Justin Thomas wore Kobe’s high school jersey on the 16th hole. He also had a purple and gold head cover on his putter. Max Homa wore a No. 24 Kobe jersey on Thursday. Tony Finau wore purple and gold golf shoes and donned a No. 8 Kobe jersey in all four rounds on the 16th hole.
And at 8:24 a.m. on Sunday, the grounds crew cut the hole at No. 16. They marked it 24 paces on, eight paces in from the left, in honor of Kobe Bryant.
Then they put in a special flag that had 8 on one side and 24 on the other.
16th hole. @WMPhoenixOpen. Placed at 8:24 a.m. pic.twitter.com/wpdFT9iPyT
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 2, 2020