Chaos is in style at the WM Phoenix Open, and fans are decked out from head to toe.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Chaos is in style at the WM Phoenix Open, and fans are decked out from head to toe.
Amid the sea of T-shirts, tight dresses and regular golf attire, there are grown men dressed as Disney princesses and in Colonial garb, and one group of Waldos who weren’t difficult to find.
The quartet from Phoenix gathered for a combination Super Bowl/Phoenix Open celebration, admitting they did not come up with their Waldo idea on their own.
“We saw a video from a couple years ago of [fans] storming to run in and there were like 15 Waldos,” said Mitchell Barnes, 24. “We were like, ‘We have to do that.’ We were inspired.”
Fans at the 16th green at the 2023 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
One local resident who has been coming to the Open for the last 20 years, brought some new spectators along. Pam Alaaldin brought her college roommate from Arizona State, her roommate’s husband and their five kids to the Open, the group traveling in from Buffalo.
“They had to understand how exciting it is when you’re wearing matching outfits because it just brings it up to a whole other level,” she said. “I provided the free hat and shirt for all the attendees. We like to bring the fun.”
The grass-like hats featured tiny white flagsticks on top while the green shirts each each had golf-themed puns like “We’re here to PAR-TEE!!”
Although many fans around the course sported Eagles or Chiefs gear ahead of the Super Bowl, John Aallen, 42, and his fellow Canadian friends wore the purple jerseys of their favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings.
Standing in an ever-growing line to get into the 16th hole, the group was ready to go with drinks in hand and at one point, tried to remember the name of the Canadian prime minister.
The friends said they have been coming to the tournament in their Minnesota gear for more than 12 years.
“We can’t go to the Super Bowl,” Aallen said, “so we’re pretending like we’re at the Super Bowl.”
Most of the time, the grounds crews at PGA Tour events go about their business in obscurity.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Most of the time, the grounds crews at PGA Tour events go about their business in obscurity. Things like changing hole locations between rounds happen in darkness, to little or no fanfare.
Because of the first-round frost delay and the subsequent delay in play, the second round of the 2023 WM Phoenix Open spilled into Saturday.
The cut finally came in around midday, which meant the cutting of the new hole was done in full view of all the fans, who absolutely loved it.
The grounds crew member who got the call enjoyed his moment in the sun, bowing the crowd when he was done.
StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps of TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, including its famous 16th that becomes the scene of a giant party.
TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course, site of the 2023 WM Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour, was designed by the team of Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1986. It was renovated in 2014.
The Stadium Course has been the site of a Tour event since 1987. It will play to 7,261 yards with a par of 71 this week.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course.
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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Sam Ryder made it rain in 2022.
His instantly-famous ace during the third round of the WM Phoenix Open ignited the fans in the coliseum, and once the first few beer bottles went flying, there was no stopping the onslaught.
There’s no official count but likely it was a few thousand of the $10 beers in aluminum bottles that were launched, showering the course in suds and halting play for close to 15 minutes.
Many of the chucked beers were full or mostly full.
“It was like a weapon,” said tournament chairman Pat Williams.
So in 2023, there will be bottles no more.
Starting Wednesday “every canned alcoholic beverage, beer or seltzer, anything that’s alcohol that’s in a can will be served in that cup,” said Williams. “Anything that was non-canned – water, coke – those are still served in our traditional plastic cups, but canned beer will go in the new commemorative cup.”
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Patrons of the Masters will instantly recognize the cups, but the shade of green is a bit different.
“They’re the same size as the Masters cup, a little different color, with our logo on it but made by the same company.”
A souvenir cup with the 16th hole logo at TPC Scottsdale at the 2023 WM Phoenix Open. (Photo: Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
That’s not to say fans won’t attempt to throw them towards the grass on the 16th hole.
“Last year was incredible with the hole-in-one. We avoided injury which was great but to further protect the players and the fans we’ll put the alcohol in cups. If they decide to throw it, it’ll probably only get to the row in front of them and just make that person upset.”
The commemorative cup might make fans think twice before discarding a cool keepsake.
“I think it’s going to be great,” Williams said. “They’re recyclable, which is important.
“If a fan decides to have more than one drink, they get another cup. You can’t pour the alcohol in the same cup so each beverage will get a new cup so a fan could walk out with two or three or four or maybe more cups.”
Carlos Ortiz made an ace on the same hole Sunday last year and fans threw their beer cans again, but it’s the Ryder shot that everyone seems to remember.
Those were the 10th and 11th hole-in-ones on the 16th hole in tournament history.
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If you’re not one to hush up for golf, check out five thoughts on the 16th at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course.
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.
A group of men dressed like Richard Simmons pose in the birds nest at No. 16 during the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Nicole Neri/The Republic)
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.
A drone view of the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course in 2020 (Golfweek files)
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.
On Jan. 25, 1997, it was Tiger Woods pandemonium: “To turn around and see all this beer flying was crazy.”
Steve Stricker doesn’t mind being lost in the shadows, the low-key Wisconsinite never one to seek the limelight or the spotlight.
But this is ridiculous.
Twenty-five years ago, he made his first hole-in-one on the PGA Tour, a 6-iron from 170 yards on the usually rowdy 16th hole in Sunday’s final round of the Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. He even won a car with his stroke of perfection, an off-white Oldsmobile Aurora with a 1997 sticker price of $35,000.
Unfortunately, it was one of those “Bueller, Bueller” moments. Hardly anybody saw it, hardly anybody outside of Stricker’s family remembers it. Even a hunt through Google or any other search engine comes up blank.
All because of Tiger Woods.
The exploding superstar, who was just 21 but had already won three of his record-tying 82 PGA Tour victories heading into the 1997 Phoenix Open, made one of the most famous holes-in-one in game’s history the day before.
On the same hole.
In front of about 15,000 people – or about 14,980 more than saw Stricker’s ace.
The 15,000 was a large collection of the estimated 120,000 fans that attended the Greatest Show on Turf that Saturday, the wildest day of the wildest week in golf.
The numero uno – a soft 9-iron from 162 yards that bounced into the hole – was captured live on ESPN and has been replayed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube and other social media outlets. And numerous stories featuring words of the shot and scene do come up on search engines.
“Well, that shows you who moves the needle,” Stricker said. “That’s Tiger for you. He raised the roof, but I won the car.”
It was Woods’ second ace as a professional – he made his first in his debut in the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open. But you’d be hard pressed to find a hole-in-one that produced as loud an aftermath as Woods’ ace. Or as insane a reaction from the fans that day, who began to make it rain with empty and full beer cups.
“It was loud,” is all that the reserved Mike “Fluff” Cowen said this year on the silver anniversary of his former boss’ ace.
Loud? The sustained detonation reverberated across the golf course and rattled the windows in the clubhouse – more than 500 yards away.
Paired for the first time with Woods was Omar Uresti, who had the honor when the two arrived at the 16th tee. Today’s three-story coliseum enclosing the hole had yet to be built but a massive wall of people was waiting on the hill to the right of the hole that extended to the green and another mass of people were behind the hole.
A large beer tent was at the top of the hill.
Uresti then hit an 8-iron to less than three feet and the gallery exploded.
After the crowd fell silent following Uresti’s shot, and with the McDowell Mountains standing tall as a stunning backdrop, Woods swung away. The ball soared truly toward the flagstick, landed softly, took two bounces and disappeared.
“I think I broke Fluff’s hand,” Woods said years later about his high-five to his caddie. “I missed Omar or was it Rusty? Omar? I missed his. And then old school, back in the day, raised the roof, you know, that was the thing in the day.
“Then on top of that, just smelling and hearing the beer hit behind me on the tee box. To turn around and see all this beer flying was crazy.”
Another crazy thing happened shortly thereafter.
“The more eerie part was when we were playing 17 and 18, everybody didn’t really care,” Woods said. “They were walking in, because they had seen what they wanted to see and 16 was empty.”
The concert will take place on a stage built in the middle of the 16th hole fairway.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Waste Management Phoenix Open has added a Concert at the Coliseum to its live music programming for 2022.
Thomas Rhett and Old Dominion will take the stage at the iconic 16th hole for the inaugural Concert at the Coliseum on Saturday, Feb. 5, providing fans with an earlier start date for the festivities.
The Phoenix Open week runs Monday, Feb. 7, through Sunday, Feb. 13.
General admission tickets for the Concert at the Coliseum are $150 and go on sale at 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 1, at WMPhoenixOpen.com.
A limited number of suites with all-inclusive food and beverage are also available. The Concert at the Coliseum is a 21-and-older event.
Doors open at 3 p.m. Old Dominion will kick things off at 5 p.m., with Thomas Rhett taking the stage at approximately 6:30 p.m.
The concert will take place on a stage built in the middle of the 16th hole fairway strictly for this show.
In a news release, tournament chairman Dr. Michael Golding said, “We’ve all seen the energy fans bring to cheer on the PGA Tour players at the 16th hole. We can’t wait to see and feel that buzz at night for Thomas Rhett and Old Dominion.”
Birds Nest concerts for 2022
Live music will, of course, continue at the festival’s popular Coors Light Birds Nest.
The Birds Nest will bring Sam Hunt, Macklemore and Kygo to the big tent when the popular concert series returns on the weekend of Feb. 9-12, 2022, for the golf tournament. Tickets are on sale at coorslightbirdsnest.com.
The Wednesday headline act and remaining Birds Nest lineup will be announced as more artists are confirmed.
Thomas Rhett performs “What’s Your Country Song” at the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards at the Grand Ole Opry Saturday, on April 17, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo by George Walker IV/The Tennessean
In a release, Golding said, “We’re absolutely thrilled to welcome music fans back to the Coors Light Birds Nest and to kick things off with an incredible lineup of musicians.”
Headlining the Thursday, Feb. 10, show is American country music star Sam Hunt with special guest, multi-platinum recording artist Russell Dickerson.
More about Sam Hunt, Macklemore, Kygo
A former college football quarterback, Hunt has topped the country airplay charts eight times since breaking through with “Leave the Light On” in 2014, including the multi-platinum smashes “Take Your Time,” “House Party,” “Make You Miss Me” and “Body Like a Back Road.”
Four-time Grammy winner Macklemore will headline Friday, Feb. 11. Macklemore earned his four Grammy’s in 2014: Best New Artist, Best Rap Album (“The Heist”), and Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for hit single “Thrift Shop,” one of his two No. 1 singles that year.
He also earned two American Music Awards in 2013 for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album as well Billboard Music Awards in 2013 and 2014 for Rap Song of the Year (“Thrift Shop”) and Top Rap Song (“Can’t Hold Us”).
Rounding out the lineup is Norwegian-born producer/DJ Kygo, along with special guests Sam Feldt and Forester on Saturday, Feb. 12.
Kygo has built a career on popular remixes, sellout shows in North America and Europe and headline performances at Coachella and Ultra Music Festival with 15 billion global streams. The multiplatinum “It Ain’t Me” (feat. Selena Gomez) cracked the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 with more than 2.5 billion streams worldwide.
This is Kygo’s second Birds Nest appearance, following his successful debut in 2020.
Changes are coming
The Birds Nest will see some changes this year to the outdoor patio area.
The live performances will still take place inside the 48,000-square-foot-tent, but the area outside the tent will offer an enhanced fan experience with more of a festival atmosphere.
In a news release, chairman Eric Brandt said, “We wanted to take a look at how we could improve the overall fan experience, especially before the headliners take the stage.”
Brandt said ticket holders “can expect a much more fan-friendly atmosphere where they can meet friends for drinks after golf, come early to have a bite to eat at food trucks, play outdoor party games and enjoy the various outdoor bars and seating areas.”
Birds Nest general admission tickets start at $75. VIP tickets are available starting at $285, which includes exclusive access to an enhanced VIP area where guests are treated to complimentary food and drinks and access to a premium viewing area for the shows.
Organizers encourage fans to buy their tickets early as ticket prices will increase as the event draws closer.
The Birds Nest is located directly across from the main Phoenix Open tournament entrance. The entertainment venue opens at 3:30 p.m. and closes at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
Headline acts will take the main stage each evening at approximately 8:30 p.m. The Birds Nest is a 21-and-over venue.
From TPC Sawgrass to St. Andrews, check out our top bucket-list holes in all of tournament golf.
The Players Championship. Penultimate hole. Island green. Safe or splash. What more is there to say?
The par 3 surrounded by water is certainly daunting to look at, particularly at the Players Championship, where Tour players tee it up from just inside 140 yards. The same goes for amateurs who get the chance to tee it up at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, though many are probably thinking about the iconic par 3 the whole round.
If the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass is on a golf fan’s bucket list for must-see-in-person tournament golf (and in some cases, must-play), what are some of the others? The Road Hole at St. Andrews? The seventh hole at Pebble Beach?
Here are 23 more of our choices for bucket-list holes you should get to in person if you ever get the chance:
17th hole, Old Course, St. Andrews
Par 4, 495 yards
Jack Nicklaus on the 17th hole at the 134th Open Championship at Old Course, St. Andrews Golf Links, July 11, 2005. (Photo: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
There’s a blind tee shot over the old faux coal sheds outlined by the boundary fence for the Old Course Hotel. Too often the road becomes a resting place for wayward approach shots. The perched green wraps around the Road Hole Bunker, the one must-avoid spot on the course.
