The WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale is the PGA Tour’s annual party in the desert.
The fan-favorite event is known for many things, none bigger, however, than the stadium-like stands surrounding the par-3 16th.
It’s madness year in and year out, with fans hoping for the opportunity to throw their beers on the green in celebration of a hole-in-one. The latest to do so was Carlos Ortiz — who has since moved to LIV Golf — in 2022.
Relive some of the iconic moments below.
(Mike Sposa (2002), Steve Stricker (1997), Jay Delsing (1991), Brad Bryant (1990), David Edwards (1990) and Hal Sutton (1988) also made holes-in-one at the 16th at the Phoenix Open, but we were unable to find video footage.)
Jack Nicklaus is the only three-time winner of the Players, and he did so at three different courses.
All jokes about being golf’s fifth major aside, the Players Championship has a knack for delivering each year.
Turnover is the main theme, seeing as no player has ever defended their title at the PGA Tour’s flagship event, which has been held annually at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, since 1982.
In fact, over the last 20 editions of the Players Championship, 20 different winners have hoisted the trophy. Eight past champions are in the field this week with the aim of joining the short, distinguished list of six players who have won the tournament more than once, including Jack Nicklaus, the lone three-time winner.
Hal Sutton and Jack Nicklaus share a unique piece of golf history.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – When Hal Sutton held off Jack Nicklaus by one shot to win the 1983 PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club north of Los Angeles, the Golden Bear turned to his crystal ball.
“This will be one of many major championships for you,” Nicklaus told the 25-year-old Sutton that day, adding that he could be the “Next Jack” and become the game’s dominant force with the game he possessed.
While that never came to be – Sutton didn’t win another major – the two are linked in Players Championship history as the only players to win the PGA Tour’s flagship event twice – with all four titles captured on a Monday.
“That’s something. Monday finishes are rare, and we each did it twice,” Sutton said over the phone. “Not bad standing next to Jack in that way.”
This week’s storms have forced the Players Championship into a Monday finish for just the eighth time. Nicklaus won the inaugural Players in 1974 on Monday and the 1976 Players on Monday; the runner-up both years was J.C. Snead. Add his 1978 Players title – coming on a Sunday, mind you – Nicklaus is the only three-time winner of The Players.
Sutton won the 1983 championship in the second year it was played at TPC Sawgrass. Seventeen years later, he won the 2000 Players by holding off heavy favorite Tiger Woods by one shot with his “be the right club today,” on 18.
“It’s hard enough to win a golf tournament when you have to play four days, but when you add the fifth day to it, it just makes it that much harder,” said Sutton, 63, a winner of 14 PGA Tour titles, a former Ryder Cup captain and the PGA of America’s Player of the Year in 1983.
Sutton said his mindset heading into the Mondays was different.
“I was chasing the lead in the first one and I was sitting on the lead in the second one,” Sutton said.
In 1983, Sutton came from four shots back with a final-round, 3-under-par 69 on Monday to win by one shot over Bob Eastwood.
“My mentality was to just string one good shot after another good shot and see what happens,” Sutton said. “It wasn’t blowing as hard as it was (on Saturday of this year), but it was blowing hard. A key shot was on 17 when I hit an 8-iron into the middle of the green and it rolled back to the hole to about six inches.
“Believe me, I wasn’t aiming at the flag.”
Seventeen years later, Sutton was ranked No. 11 in the world heading into the Players. Woods was No. 1 – by an astonishing 10 points. Woods, who had yet to play four full years on the PGA Tour, already had won 19 of his record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles, including three in 2000 heading into the Players. He had won two of his 15 majors; he would win three consecutive majors later in 2000.
But when play was halted on Sunday due to another storm, Sutton had a three-shot as the two were on the 12th hole.
“My mindset was, and I was pretty specific about this, I had to get to the 16th hole with a three-shot lead,” Sutton said. “Because I might not go for the green in two at 16 and he probably would, which means he might make eagle and I might make par. And that’s exactly what happened. He made eagle and I made par and I went to 17 with a one-shot lead.”
Both parred 17, setting up Sutton’s memorable call from the middle of the fairway on 18. He was 178 yards from the flag and pulled a 6-iron. As the ball flew toward the flag, Sutton emphatically said, “be the right club today.” It was, coming to rest 10 feet from the hole. Woods went over the green but chipped to less than a foot, forcing Sutton to two-putt. He did.
“It felt great. I had never said, ‘be the right club today’ in my life,” Sutton said. “But I knew I had the perfect yardage; I knew there was nothing that could take the tournament away from me after I hit it. The only thing that could hurt the shot was a puff of wind. That’s why I said what I said, I just didn’t want to be surprised.
“Playing alongside Tiger made it a lot different. He was beating everybody at the time. That week Colin Montgomerie said we were all playing for second. The week before Davis had a three-shot lead and Tiger ran him down and won.
“Tiger needed to be beat at the time. I felt the pressure of being the guy in charge and trying to beat him. It was added pressure and the win felt a little bit better.”
With his victory in 1983, Sutton won $126,000 – becoming the first six-figure winner in The Players. Seventeen years later, he won $1.08 million – becoming the first seven-figure winner in The Players.
“I think back to those tournaments all the time whether the PGA Tour is playing on Monday or not,” Sutton said. “When you’ve had success on a demanding course like the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, against the best field in golf, you don’t forget you won there.”
The two biggest stars in golf history over the last 60 years won the Players on a Monday.
Hal Sutton had the right club, on that day.
Fred Funk hit into a bunker he’d never been in before, then got a huge break on the lie.
Raymond Floyd schooled an up-and-coming PGA Tour star who would one day join him in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
And the two biggest stars in golf history over the last 60 years added Players Championships to their lengthy resumes.
And they all happened on a Monday.
The Players Championship will have a Monday finish at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass because of storms on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It will be the eighth Monday finish in the history of the tournament and the fourth at the Stadium Course.
No one – the Tour, players, fans and TV partners – is ever happy with a Monday finish. It’s made for longer weeks, cuts into preparations for the next event on the schedule, denies many fans who held Sunday tickets the chance to see the winner walk down the 18th fairway and results in lower ratings.
But in the case of The Players, the Monday finishes have resulted in some of the most memorable moments in tournament history and certainly among the most worthy winners.
Jack Nicklaus has won a record three Players Championships and two of them were on a Monday, at two venues, one in the summer and one in the spring.
Tiger Woods won the first of his two Players titles, closing it out two days after sinking his famous “Better than Most,” putt at No. 17 and holding off Vijay Singh – who executed perhaps the most stunning and inventive short-game shot in tournament history.
Floyd won on a Monday, the last year The Players was contested at the Sawgrass Country Club.
Both of Hal Sutton’s Players titles and Funk’s biggest professional triumph – yep, on Mondays.
That’s three members of the Hall of Fame, a major champion in Sutton and one of the most respected, blue-collar winners on the PGA Tour during his time in Funk.
Not a bad set of winners for any tournament, on any day.
Tom Watson vaulted past Hal Sutton in October at the Brazos Bash in Texas.
Move over, Hal Sutton. There’s a new career leading-money winner among golfers – wait for it, wait for it – in cutting, and his name is Tom Watson.
The 72-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer took up cutting, a western-style equestrian event rooted in ranching in which a horse and rider handle cattle during a 2½-minute performance, the sport at which his wife, Hilary, excelled. After her death in late 2019, Watson found solace, not in golf but rather cutting, as chronicled in Golfweek (March issue, 2020). In that story, Watson said he had earned to date $28,000 and set a goal to pass Sutton, whose career earnings in the sport totaled $42,000.
When Watson vaulted past Sutton, the former PGA champion, two-time Players champion, and 2004 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, in October at the Brazos Bash in Texas, he texted Sutton to let him know that he was the new king of the money list – at least among professional golfers.
“I said, ‘Don’t tell anybody how much it cost to get there,’ and he laughed,” Watson said.
It’s just the latest example of Watson, the hard-nosed competitor, and proof of just how invested he’s become in the sport to go from novice to good enough to win a belt buckle, the typical trophy awarded at cutting events. Watson has done it the old-fashioned way – he’s earned it.
“I know what worked for me when I turned pro in golf, and that was to work as hard as I could,” Watson said.
Judges score a run on a scale from 60 to 80, but unlike golf the higher the number the better. At the time of the previous Golfweek story, Watson’s best score was a 74, which he described as the equivalent of shooting 66 in golf. Since then, he’s recorded a 76 and a few 75s. Watson tabbed himself as about a 10 handicap at cutting.
“I’ve got a really good horse that makes me look good,” Watson said.
He’s already gearing up to add to his winnings in 2022 with an ambitious schedule in the saddle.
“The first week of January I have a show in Abilene, show my two‑ and three‑year‑olds and will probably show at least twice in February, then go play at ‑‑ going to play the Mitsubishi Electric Hualalai tournament on the Senior Tour. That will be my only event on the Senior Tour (next year). Then March and early April during Nationals, there’s a big show called the Super Stakes, and I’ll be showing there my two‑ and three‑year‑olds, turned four‑year olds.”
Next up: $50,000 in career earnings is in Watson’s sights.
Golfweek recently caught up with Hal Sutton, a father of four, to talk more about his insights on guiding young athletes. Here are excerpts.
If you’re not following Hal Sutton on Twitter, change that now.
Fantastic anecdotes from his playing career and time spent with greats like Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan fill his feed. The 14-time PGA Tour winner opened Hal Sutton Golf in Houston on Aug. 1, about a driver and a 5-iron away from Champions Golf Club, home of the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open. (There’s a great story on his Twitter feed about mentor Jack Burke, too.)
Sutton works with a number of up-and-coming junior players as well as long-time low-handicappers still looking for an edge.
A recent series of tweets regarding the relationship between a young Hal and his father focused on the important topic of how players perceive their parents’ love when it comes to performance.
Golfweek recently caught up with Sutton, a father of four, to talk more about his insights on guiding young athletes. Here are excerpts from that conversation.
I grew up with a dad that pushed and pushed and pushed and, you know, I wanted to please him more than anything else in the world. No matter how well I did he seemed to raise the bar on me all the time, so that we never quite got to when I thought hey dad, you’re finally pleased with me.
That caused me to tweet “Is your love for your athlete performance-based?” And then I followed that up in the same paragraph, “It’s your athlete’s perception of what your love is that is important.” Most parents miss that. I followed it up with, “Y’all missed the point. The point is how do they perceive what you’re doing?”
One day I said to my dad, you know you never really told me that you loved me. This was after I’m a bunch older. He said, “I gave up all my hobbies; I gave up all my friends; I gave up everything I did to help make what you wanted possible and you question whether I loved you?” That’s pretty profound. But see, sometimes the kid’s perception is what’s really important.
Hal Sutton kisses his eight-month-old daughter Sadie after giving a golf clinic at The Golf Club at StoneBridge in Bossier City, Louisiana, in 1999. (Photo: Chris Stanfield)
If I could’ve conveyed that to my dad, and he could’ve conveyed that to me at an earlier age, it would’ve been more powerful for our relationship. I kept my dad at arm’s length for a long time because I didn’t want to know what he thought. I knew that even though I was doing pretty well, it probably wasn’t what he wanted me to do.
We lost some time in our relationship. I later tweeted out that at 87 and 62, I know my dad loves me, but why wait that long?
I’ve got a picture up of my dad in the main room in here. It’s me holding the Wannamaker Trophy right after I won. I make the kids look at it with the parents and I say OK, if you all didn’t know who won this tournament you couldn’t tell by the smiles on those faces could you?
I’ve heard kids say, this is their life. It is your life, but your parents have to be heavily involved. You can’t financially support yourself. There are so many things that you need your parents for, and they’ve invested in your life, both financially and lovingly and every other way. So my dad was victorious that day too.
I tell every kid that there needs to be celebration. You know my dad never really let me celebrate, he was moving into the next one. We work hard to win, and we win very little because golf, if you’re not Tiger Woods, most people don’t win all the time. … Spend 24 hours patting each other on the back and saying job well done. And then, after that, form some new goals because I’m sure this victory just changed your goal outlook.
Tiger was constantly changing his goals, based on what he had just done. You can’t stay on course because things happen in your life, and that changes the course. Parents are really good at seeing that.
Most dad don’t let you rest. As soon you’ve accomplished something, OK onward, onward, onward. Most kids are the exact opposite. OK, we did it, let’s rest. The people that make it the farthest aren’t resting much.
What I needed more than anything else was to know that I was loved regardless of how poorly I played. That’s one of the things I feel like is really important. We need to be supportive as parents. We need to be loving as parents. We need to know, as parents, they’re going to have some bad rounds. That child, that student-athlete, they need to know that I expect you have a bad day every now and then, and I want you to know that regardless of it, I love you. We’re still going to be fine.
The thing that I remember most about growing up was when I was in the midst of a round, and it wasn’t going exactly as I wanted, I thought immediately about how I was disappointing my dad. Sometimes it caused me to focus harder on the round. But, you know, the disappointment that I was going to deliver by poor play was weighing too heavy on me.
Let me tell you what happens when it gets that way. You get to where you don’t want to take any risk. What you don’t want to do is to put enough pressure on your child to perform well that they’re not willing to take some gambles – a calculated risk, if you will.
If, all of a sudden, you’re just playing conservatively all the time to keep from paying bad, you will never become the best version of you that you can become.
There were times that I have seen parents embarrass kids by either raking them over the coals in front of other people, or what they have to say to someone else and it’s within an earshot of the child. And that hurts. Those kids don’t forget those things. So how do you tell them that they don’t mean it? And, you know, that they’re just letting off some steam. Those are some comments that my mother would make to me. He loves you. He loves you. That’s what the other parent ends up telling the child because they’re questioning it. All I can say to a child like that is play whatever you’re playing because you love it, not because you’re trying to please somebody else.
Blaine McCallister talks to Hal Sutton during the second round of the 2008 AT&T Championship at Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo: Thomas Shea/Getty Images
My nephew was recruited by USC and Baylor. It came down to those two, to play football and baseball for them. He’s a quarterback and a short stop, one of the better ones in the country. He asked me to come up to Baylor to go on the recruiting trip to him. We walked out and I said “Hey Blake, I just want to say one thing to you. I know you’re good. And I know you’re going to continue to develop but here’s the truth. Every day is not going to be a good day. And in the sport you chose, they boo you when you have a bad day. And guess what? Those are the days that you need the people that love you to tell you, ‘Hey, we still love you.’ I said if you go all the way to USC, it’s going to be harder for us to do that. That’s me talking to blood about what I think. We need to make these athletes feel loved.
We need to help them understand that your performance on the golf course doesn’t really totally say who you are as a person. I would say probably in my 50s is when I began to start to understand that. I started having all sorts of physical problems, replacing the hips and everything else and couldn’t play golf the way I used to be able to play it. I found myself down all the time because so much of my identity came from golf. All of a sudden, I’m going wait a minute, am I worthless now? No, I’m not worthless.
A story has been on my mind with money doing what it’s done so I thought I would tell it. It’s about Byron Nelson. I had worked with him some my senior year in college and my first year on tour 1982. I won the last event of the year Disney and he invited me to Dallas.
