A party. A par-3. The loudest scene in golf. A chance to cut loose and show a very different side of golf, where pros can interact with fans in ways not seen anywhere else. A chance to elicit wild cheers, or maybe lose a tournament to the sound of boos late in the final round.
Called the Coliseum, No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course is many things to different people. What the atmosphere is most of all, especially to those who attend, is unforgettable – assuming they haven’t been overserved.
Dubbed the People’s Open, the WM Phoenix Open – rebranded this year to condense Waste Management to WM – has been played at the Stadium Course since 1987. And it has become for many the can’t-miss event on the PGA Tour calendar.
And the 16th is the star of a show that can host more than 200,000 fans in a day. The event no longer offers up statistics on fan attendance since the 2019 event, but on Saturday in 2018, more than 216,000 fans attended the event.
Not to be lost in all the noise and revelry is that the Thunderbirds, the charitable organization that operates the event, has raised more than $160 million and counting for Arizona charities – No. 16 is great and all, but the numbers 1 and 6 look even better when followed by all those zeroes, in this case.
Also worth noting: The Stadium Course, designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1986, ranks No. 5 in Arizona on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It will play at 7,261 yards with a par of 71. And with those details taken care of, check out several of the more-interesting themes of No. 16 – and what comes after.