Hahn provided some insight to the craziness that is the 16th hole.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Augusta National has No. 12. Pebble Beach has No. 7. TPC Sawgrass has the 17th.
All par 3s. All iconic. All a part of the lore of the game.
But for several years now, the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale – normally an innocuous challenge – has become one of the bucket-list places in the game, for pro golfers and fans alike. And there’s really nothing like it anywhere in the game.
It was long known as the party hole at the Stadium Course, but a hole-in-one there by Tiger Woods in 1997 really ignited things. That year, fans surrounded the hole, but the thought of a triple-decker grandstand hadn’t yet materialized.
These days, it’s known as the Coliseum, a mini-stadium packed with close to 18,000 fans, all seemingly breathing down the necks of those golfers who partake in the challenge.
James Hahn interacts with fans on the 16th hole during the second round of the 2023 WM Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
What does it feel like to walk through the tunnel? How do you handle all the noise? What about the name-calling or the singing or chanting? And is it really cool for fans to boo you when you miss the green?
James Hahn, an 11-year veteran on the PGA Tour with two career victories, has played the tournament 11 times and made the cut eight times, which means he has had 38 cracks at making an ace on the 16th hole.
During a recent media event, Hahn let Golfweek tag along for the four closing holes, Nos. 15 through 18. It’s the most exciting stretch on the Sundays of the WM Phoenix Open. Hahn provided some insight to the craziness that is the 16th hole.
It’s been another fascinating year following the PGA Tour.
It’s been another fascinating year following the PGA Tour, one complete with surprise moves, defections, internal strife, and of course, memorable victories.
And as part of taking our year-end inventory, we’ve been looking through the numbers and tallying up which stories drew your attention — and sharing the findings with you.
For the final days of 2023, we’re offering up a snapshot of the top 10 stories from each of Golfweek’s most popular sections, including travel, the PGA and LPGA tours, instruction and amateur golf.
Here’s a look at the top 10 PGA Tour stories, as clicked on by you (we should note, this list doesn’t include photo galleries or money lists):
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The First Tee Phoenix celebrated its 20th year with a “green” carpet fundraising bash Monday night.
PGA Tour golfers Joel Dahmen and James Hahn were among those who walked the celebrity green carpet at Ocean 44, a high-end seafood restaurant in Scottsdale, where guests paid $1,500 a plate to raise money for the First Tee program, first established in 2003. There are now 14 golf courses hosting First Tee-Phoenix programs, including TPC Scottsdale, home of the PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open.
Other famous faces who showed up Monday included ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon, golf trick shot artist Tania Tare, PXG founder Bob Parsons, former Arizona governor Doug Ducey and former vice president Dan Quayle.
Joel Dahmen is interviewed by a local TV station during a fundraising event for the First Tee Phoenix in Scottsdale. (Photo: Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
The First Tee has 150 chapters nationwide with a goal of connecting the game of golf with junior golfers ages 4 to 18 in underserved communities. First Tee-Phoenix reports that there are now more than 120,000 young golfers involved in the program statewide.
Jeff Mastro, owner and founder of Ocean 44 as well as popular Scottsdale steak restaurants Steak 44 and Dominick’s Steakhouse, hosted the event and underwrote the entire cost of the evening.
There were about 180 attendees in all and the night raised close to $1 million.
“They’re just covering their ass and saying everything that the PGA Tour basically has trained them to say”
James Hahn is mad. Like the TV newscaster in the classic movie “Network,” Hahn is mad as hell except he’s mad as hell about the changes coming to the PGA Tour in 2024.
“I mean, I hate them,” Hahn said during a phone interview with Golfweek that interrupted his gym workout. “I’m gonna say exactly what 99.99 percent of fans said about players leaving for the LIV Tour. If our players just said, ‘We’re doing this for the money,’ I would have a lot more respect for them. But how they’re covering up what they’re doing and trying to make it a thing about sponsors and fans and saving opposite-field events. I think that’s all BS.
“All the big names that are talking about this ‘new product,’ if you just came out and said, ‘Hey, we’re doing this for the money,’ they want more guaranteed money and this is another way to funnel more money to the top players in the world, I’d have a lot more respect for them.
“Right now, they’re just covering their ass and saying everything that the PGA Tour basically has trained them to say, have taught them to say and try to make it not about money when everyone knows 100 percent it’s about more guaranteed money being funneled to the top players in the world. We’ve been talking about money for the last two years and for them not to say that that’s not the No. 1 reason why they’re making these changes —it’s very, very hypocritical.”
Hahn, a 41-year-old two-time Tour winner, was just getting warmed up. His fellow Cal alum Max Homa on Wednesday during his pre-tournament press conference said he might go on a rant about the changes and then did for more than 4 minutes. Hahn had a lot on his mind and spoke for more than 45 minutes on Thursday, touching on a wide array of topics. So, let’s get after it.
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“Certain changes were made to combat the LIV Tour, not necessarily make our Tour any better,” James Hahn said.
ATLANTA — Two-time winner James Hahn doesn’t claim to be disappointed with the changes coming to the PGA Tour next season, but that doesn’t mean he is pleased with them either. As one of four player directors on the Tour’s nine-voting member Policy Board, he cast the lone dissenting vote. In a Golfweek exclusive, Hahn tells for the first time why he felt compelled to do so.
“Certain changes were made to combat the LIV Tour, not necessarily make our Tour any better,” he said in a phone interview on Saturday. “To prevent more players from leaving our Tour, we are ending up paying the top players in the world guaranteed money that has increased exponentially. Three years ago, we started implementing this new PIP program, which has grown to $100 million. It seems like the people who have the most influence of how much money is distributed to the top players in the world have a much stronger voice now than they’ve ever had. I understand the reasoning that the money is used to keep top players and without them, we have no Tour. My question to them is when is it enough? We’ve gone from $50 million to $100 million. When $100 million isn’t enough, will they ask for $200 million? How will that impact our business?”
Hahn noted that many of the same players who bashed LIV defectors as employees who no longer had the luxury to pick their schedule and privilege to play when they want to have essentially given up those very rights.
James Hahn wins at the 2016 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in a one-hole playoff.
“It’s interesting how things have switched,” he said of how top 20 players will have to make 20 mandatory starts (three non-elevated starts will be optional) to receive their PIP money. “Purses increasing to $20 million isn’t enough – they needed guaranteed money to give up their freedom. It feels very hypocritical and it could cannibalize the rest of the season and make the other tournaments feel like second-class events. By asking the best players to play more and essentially the same schedule they are going to end up taking the same week off. Are they going to play the Honda Classic with its $8-million purse or the $20 million purses that surround it? I fear we could end up like the ATP (tennis circuit) where only a handful of events draw real interest. These are some of the things we had to think through before we voted.”
Hahn expressed concern that the gap between the haves and have-nots has widened even deeper, and noted several of the meetings have become heated.
“We all want the same thing, what’s best for the Tour, but we have different ideas on how to get there,” he said. “Right now, it seems like they are catering to the top players in the world.”
Hahn understands how the business works – the value of the next TV contract will depend on star power and being able to have the best players competing against each other more often is a good thing. The dollars have grown considerably in the most recent TV deal that kicked in this year and that money gets distributed to the whole membership primarily through larger purses. Hahn contended that the Tour’s rank and file provide value too.
“If we were at a steak house and everything was a la carte how much do you pay for your steak compared to the asparagus and the baked potato? If you were to do a la carte, sure, the top players in the world are worth exponentially more than asparagus. But you don’t eat just steak at a steakhouse. You have to have your sides, right? The Tour won’t taste as good if you just had 20 tournaments on our TV networks just showing the top players in the world. It doesn’t work that way. In my opinion, it’s just as important that they fill the other 20+ events with high performance golf in the tournaments that the top players in the world aren’t playing in. We have to remember that the TV deal is paying for those events too.
“We’re valuable to the Tour – not as valuable – and we’re trying to find a middle ground of how much guaranteed money we should pay the top players versus distributing the money in purses among the rest of the membership.”
Seems like a good compromise for both the top and the bottom. $100mm for the top 20 players on the PIP and $5k travel stipend for non-exempt players on Tour. Agree or disagree?
He continued: “The secret meeting with Tiger and Rory set a precedent that the top 20 players can get whatever they want from the Tour. So, what’s stopping the other 90 percent of our Tour from getting together and doing the same exact thing as Rory and Tiger and saying the top 20 players can go play their own tournaments but the rest of the Tour, us 90 percent all stand together and we want more benefits? I feel like a portion of the $100 million could have gone to making our Tour great rather than going to the top 20. These are the little things that irritate the rest of the membership to the point there is a lot of animosity between the haves and have-nots.”
As a player director, Hahn enjoyed a front-row seat to a critical moment in time for the Tour. He wished he could’ve done more during his term on the board, which is coming to an end, but given the unique circumstances the Tour faced he’s not disappointed that he wasn’t able to do more.
“I understand the No. 1 priority has been to keep our top players,” he said. “We’ve lost DJ, Koepka, Bryson, Reed and others. That’s been the No. 1 priority. It takes up all the discussion away from other things that compared to that is meaningless. The thought process has been if we don’t focus all of our attention and throw as much as we can against the LIV Tour to keep our players, a year from now, we might not have a Tour to play on. That’s been the overall theme in these meetings and that’s why we pushed everything else to the backburner.”
Was enough thought and consideration given to the sweeping changes that have been announced since LIV became a reality?
Hahn sees both sides to that debate and says, “We didn’t have that much time to process and think and revise some of the changes that were made because we needed to do it before the end of the season so if someone was considering leaving that they would second guess themselves and ultimately stay with the Tour. If it prevents even one person from leaving, I guess it would be considered a success.”
He continued: “It’s crazy to think that it took a secret meeting between Tiger, Rory and the best players in the world to make a change so fast that could have been made a year or two ago. I was talking to Bryson (DeChambeau) before he left the Tour. That’s what he wanted. He wanted the top players in a room and have a conversation on what they bring to the Tour and how can they be compensated for it. Because of the person that Bryson is, I don’t think he got the respect of his peers to bring together those players.”
The 40-year-old Hahn, who finished 109th in the FedEx Cup this season, never was approached by LIV. With the final wrap-around PGA Tour season starting in a few weeks, he’s motivated by the fact that if he plays the way he knows he’s capable of, he’ll be rewarded better than ever before. And he also knows that the changes being instituted will make it that much harder to retain his job.
“Everyone has their legacy – it’s not as great as Rory or Tiger – but I want mine to remain on the PGA Tour,” he said.
Does he expect the changes that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan got approved despite Hahn’s opposition to thwart more players from jumping ship to LIV?
“It all depends how invested the LIV Tour is,” he said. “If this were a game of poker, LIV raised, now we raised and it is back to the LIV Tour to call, raise again or fold.”
Hovland made the most of a bad situation on Thursday.
We’ve all done it.
You’re on the range with some friends or family warming up and you play “pass the club.” Someone hits a few shots with your driver, you take a few cuts with one of their clubs, no big deal, right?
Well the same thing happens on the PGA Tour, just ask Danny Lee and Viktor Hovland. Lee was doing a speed session near Hovland before the first round of the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba on Thursday and the two started to chat. We’ll let the young Norwegian take it from here.
“He asked me if I could hit some on his quad and I hit some drives as hard as I could and then he went back to hitting his and like I was just kind of a, I was just curious, I wanted to see if he could get his ball speed up with my driver that was a little longer,” explained Hovland. “Yeah, and then the rest is history.”
“The rest” in reality was Hovland’s driver snapping into pieces. Plural.
“Yeah, I don’t know where it snapped or how he snapped it, but I just look up after he hit the shot and it was in pieces,” added Hovland, who had a backup driver head, but didn’t have a backup shaft.
“James Hahn was in front and he was nice enough to lend me one of his backups. It’s a little bit shorter, it’s a different shaft, but honestly, almost helped me this week because it’s a little shorter,” said Hovland. “It probably goes 10 yards shorter, but I just felt like I could really hit it a little lower and a little straighter. So I’m hitting that thing really well.”
How well? Hovland, currently T-20 at 4 under, missed just two fairways but, “those weren’t with the driver. Every time I pulled the driver, it was in the fairway.”
While it’s J.T. Poston’s name at the top of the Barbasol Championship, the most eyes were arguably on James Hahn as he shot 60.
After the third round of the Barbasol Championship, J.T. Poston remains at the top of the leaderboard. Poston’s second consecutive round of 66 at Keene Trace Golf Club in Nicholasville, Kentucky, was enough to keep ahead of some pretty aggressive chasers.
One in particular.
While it’s Poston’s name at the top next to his 19-under total, the most eyes were arguably on James Hahn on a day when the Barbasol was pushed back because of weather and then pushed back again. The final groups didn’t even hit the first tee until shortly before 5 p.m., but by that time Hahn had made huge strides – to the tune of 46 spots – up the leaderboard. Hahn is now 17 under and in third, one shot behind Luke List in second.
After opening rounds of 69-70 at Keene Trace, Hahn came back on Saturday with a 12-under 60. He has four birdies on the front nine plus an eagle at the par-5 fifth then made four more birdies and another eagle, at the par-5 15th, on the back.
Hahn, a two-time winner on Tour, has only made nine cuts in 21 starts this season, but something clicked on Saturday.
“You know, earlier in the week I was kind of messing around with different practice routines with my putting stroke,” he said. “Yesterday actually I changed my routine, decided not to take anymore practice strokes at the ball. That freed me up a little bit, but had no idea I was going to shoot like that today.”
After he chipped in on 15 for eagle, Hahn had to do a double-take. The leaderboard showed him at 11 under for the day, but he had “no idea I was that far deep into the round.”
He had a putt for 59 on 18, but missed.
“Felt like you only get so many opportunities to shoot 59, so I wanted to be aggressive,” he said of playing the final hole. “Took driver off the tee, didn’t make a great swing but ended up in the fairway. I was lucky enough to put my hand on it. Hit a great second shot. The balls haven’t been spinning back all week and to see it spin back 20 feet was kind of heartbreaking, but I hit a good number, landed right next to the flag and I hit a really good putt. Speed was perfect, just didn’t give it enough break.”
Joseph Bramlett is also at 17 under and in a tie for third with Hahn. David Lingmerth and Seamus Power are both tied for fifth at 16 under.
On a sun-splashed Sunday, many golfers were stuck in neutral. But on the back 9, Brooks Koepka caught fire and won again at TPC Scottsdale.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Four of the last five Waste Management Phoenix Opens ended up going to a playoff.
That’s always nerve-racking for sports fans wanting to see the conclusion before flipping over to the Super Bowl, and the 2021 edition was shaping up to deliver another one.
On a sun-splashed Sunday, many golfers were stuck in neutral.
Third-round co-leaders Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele started the day up by three but they fell back to the pack. James Hahn went up three shots after 10 holes before falling back into a tie. Carlos Ortiz closed with birdies on 17 and 18 to grab a share of the lead.
And then there’s 2015 Phoenix Open champ Brooks Koepka, who snapped a streak of three straight missed cuts—a career-high—and then made a Sunday charge at TPC Scottsdale.
Just 1 under on the front nine, Koepka birdied 13, 14 and 15 to tie for the lead at 17 under. Two holes later, he chipped in for eagle from about 100 feet away to go up two on the field.
He closed with a tap-in par on 18 for a final-round 65 to finish 19 under and then sent a few text messages as he waited for the field to come in.
Spieth—who shot a thrilling 61 on Saturday—went 2 over on the front while Schauffele was even for the day through 16 holes. On 17, they both drove their tee shots into the water. Spieth made par but Schauffele took a bogey.
K.H. Lee birdied the 15th to get to 17 under to briefly tie for the lead. He later got to 18 under but could get no closer after shooting a 68. Rory McIlroy, playing the tournament for the first time, went 70-67-70 over the first three days but shot a closing 7-under 64. He and Ortiz tied for the low round on Sunday. And 53-year-old Steve Stricker birdied 15 and 16 to make things interesting. He shot a final-round 67.
In the end, it was Koepka hoisting the trophy for the first time on Tour since the 2019 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. He won three times that season but was winless last year.
After Friday’s round, he said: “I do know it’s been a long time so I’m itching to get a W.”
Well, he got that W on Sunday, his second at the Phoenix Open. He is the 16th player to win the event twice.
Hahn missed eight months with an elbow injury and began the season with 14 remaining on his major-medical exemption
LAS VEGAS – The good news?
James Hahn is healthy enough to be playing on a major-medical exemption.
The not-so-good news?
He has to deal with the pressure of playing on a major-medical exemption.
Hahn missed eight months in 2019 with an elbow injury and began the 2020-2021 season with 14 remaining on his major-medical exemption to retain his playing privileges.
He needed about 305 FedEx Cup points in those 14 starts. Doesn’t sound like much, right?
Well, you still have to produce and Hahn, who has won twice on the PGA Tour, has done just that so far with ties for ninth in the season-opener in the Safeway Open and sixth in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship. Those two results earned him 165 points.
A three-way tie for third or better this week would give him enough points to retain his full playing privileges.
“It’s still the weirdest feeling because I’ve never been in this position before,” Hahn said. “But if you read Bob Rotella books, how you’re supposed to go in every golf tournament should be same. You’re trying to win. You’re here to compete.
“That’s what I’m doing. I’m competing.
“I’m not looking at how many points I need to keep my medical.”
But Hahn kept up his fine form of late with a 7-under-par 64 in Thursday’s first round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin. With six birdies and an eagle, Hahn sat in a tie for fourth, two shots behind pace-setter Bryson DeChambeau.
“Just enjoying life,” Hahn said after his round. “I feel like I’m happier. I’m eating healthier. Relationship with my family is really good; golf is really easy right now.
“I’m not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I feel like when I’m happy I’m playing some of my best golf. I’m really happy with how I played today. Didn’t hit a lot of the fairways, but maybe fix that tomorrow.”
James Hahn lines up his putt on the 18th hole during the first round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open golf tournament at TPC Summerlin. Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
As for his elbow – he had a partially torn triceps tendon – he’s back to feeling 100 percent and said there is zero pain.
“It’s really relieving to wake up in the morning and not feel any pain,” he said. “It just puts me in a better mood. Regardless of how I play, I feel healthy.”
Right now, Hahn isn’t thinking about the points he has to earn to get his card back. But it’s still in the back of his mind.
“I feel like when starts getting closer down to three, four, five starts, is when I’ll maybe start freaking out,” said Hahn, who added that would only happen if he hasn’t earned his playing privileges by then. “So if you want to talk to me a couple months from now.
“Right now I feel like I have 12 starts left. That should be plenty of starts for me to at least get off to a good start in this year’s FedEx Cup and put me in a good position to make the playoffs. Ultimately that’s what we’re all trying to do here is make the playoffs, make a run at the FedExCup, and try to win the big thing.”
