Just 94 days remain until the start of the Minnesota Vikings season, but who are the best players to wear the number for the Vikings?
It’s the final countdown…
Well, sort of.
The Minnesota Vikings will kick off their 2023 regular season in 94 days at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 10.
From now until then, we will take a trip down memory lane and count each day by revisiting the players that have worn that specific jersey number.
Defensive lineman Dean Lowry currently wears the number after signing with the Vikings in free agency. Although Dalvin Tomlinson saw success in the number last season, Pat Williams headlines the number for the Vikings.
With 94 days until kickoff, here’s a look at every player to wear No. 94 with the Vikings (via Pro Football Reference):
It’s the first time the tournament has capped ticket sales for the two busiest days of tournament week.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For the first time ever, the Thunderbirds have announced a sellout at the WM Phoenix Open.
Pat Williams, the 2023 tournament chairman, said early in Thursday’s round that tickets for the second round Friday and the third round Saturday are sold out.
It’s the first time the tournament at TPC Scottsdale has capped ticket sales for the two busiest days of tournament week.
“The fan experience at the WM Phoenix Open is very important to our tournament,” Williams said in a statement. “Maintaining exceptional fan-experience quality is at the forefront of our decision making. With the weather forecast, other high-profile events in town and other factors creating record demand, The Thunderbirds feel the best way to preserve the excitement level at the WM Phoenix Open was to cap attendance on our highest traffic days. This is ‘The People’s Open’ for a reason, and we want to keep it that way.”
General admission tickets for Thursday’s first round and Sunday’s final round are still available. Go to WMPhoenixOpen.com for information.
Some of the reasons why 2023 will be the biggest, loudest and most interesting WM Phoenix Open ever.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The WM Phoenix Open is the fifth-oldest tournament on the PGA Tour. In 2023, it will celebrate its 88th playing and 36th time at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium course.
This year will also mark the biggest, most high profile, most star-studded rendition of what has become the “People’s Open.”
The PGA Tour, in an effort to stave off the upstart LIV Golf League, which has been pilfering some of the top names in the game for the last nine months, has ramped up the prize money in a big way. The Phoenix Open had a purse of $9 million in 2022. It’s more than double that in 2023.
Here’s a closer look at some of the reasons why 2023 will be the biggest, loudest, and perhaps most interesting Phoenix Open ever.
Golf in Scottsdale, then football in Glendale, about 30 miles away.
Sports worlds will collide on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, when the final round of the WM Phoenix Open concludes less than an hour before kickoff to Super Bowl 57.
Golf in Scottsdale, then football in Glendale, about 30 miles away.
That doesn’t give much time for anyone at TPC Scottsdale to make it across town, but there will be plenty of fans – and probably quite a few pro golfers – who will give it a go.
So what about tickets? Surely Pat Williams, the 2023 WM Phoenix Open tournament director, is getting bombarded with Super Bowl ticket requests from players.
“It’s interesting. It’s felt like this year it’s the reverse,” he said. “All these players want to be playing on Sunday and hopefully in the final group. … the last putt will drop 30 minutes before the kickoff and I think these players want to plan to be playing on Sunday. So we actually haven’t had a lot of player requests for Super Bowl tickets.
“What we have had is a lot of people, whether it’s the NFL themselves or executives, you know, corporate companies coming out for the Super Bowl that have requested to be here [at the Open].
“Interestingly, the Eagles were one of those teams that requested tickets and maybe they knew something long before everybody else about how good their football team was going to be because they’re going to have people out here on Saturday at the tournament.”
[the_huddle]
In 2015, the last time the Phoenix area pulled off the double dip, Jordan Spieth was one of those who watched the Super Bowl in person after being at TPC Scottsdale. He had his best score of the week that Sunday, shooting a final-round 65 to tie for seventh before hustling across town.
“Did it in 2015 when it was there. I went with [caddie] Michael [Greller]. It was the Seahawks-Patriots, and Michael is a big Seahawks fan, and that’s when they threw it instead of handing it to [Marshawn] Lynch on [second] down,” Spieth recalled when asked at the Sony Open in Hawaii earlier this month. “I’ve been a Tom Brady guy, him being an Under Armour guy, and so I was on the good end and Michael was not. It was just us two who went to the game, sitting together.”
The Arizona Super Bowls have definitely been memorable. In 1996, Larry Brown picked off two passes to lead the Dallas Cowboys past the Pittsburgh Steelers the day after Phil Mickelson outlasted Justin Leonard in a playoff in a Saturday finish.
Phil Mickelson rides with his wife Amy back to the 18th green after defeating Justin Leonard in a three-hole playoff to win the 1996 Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Simon P. Barnett/Allsport)
In 2008, after J.B. Holmes defeated Mickelson in a playoff, David Tyree made a memorable catch against his helmet to help the New York Giants stun the New England Patriots, ending their perfect season.
The 2015 game, though, was talked about for a long time because of how it finished.
“It was a wild ending. It was good. It was fun. Certainly made the Phoenix Open crazier than it is,” Spieth said, adding that he’s probably going to go once again to the football game after the golf tournament ends.
The second “elevated” event on the PGA Tour’s 2023 calendar announced its initial list of commitments.
The second elevated event on the PGA Tour’s 2023 calendar announced its initial list of commitments Thursday.
The WM Phoenix Open, which will have a purse of $20 million in February, will have its defending champion back, as Scottie Scheffler headlines the early wave of commitments.
The tournament was one of four named in October as “elevated” events featuring a massive increase in prize money. The Sentry Tournament of Champions, which is next week in Hawaii, is also an elevated event with a purse of $15 million.
Pat Williams, the 2023 tournament chairman at TPC Scottsdale, also announced Xander Schauffele and Sam Burns will be in the field.
“With the WM Phoenix Open being named a designated event, we have high expectations for showcasing the best field we’ve ever had,” Williams said in a release. “We can’t wait to introduce the rest of the field as we get closer to the 88th edition of ‘The People’s Open.'”
In 2022, Scheffler broke through at the Phoenix Open for his first PGA Tour win. He went on to win three more times, including the Masters, in the span of six starts. He later rose to No. 1 in the world ranking and capped his season atop the Tour’s money list.
Schauffele won three times last season, the Zurich Classic, the Travelers Championship and the Genesis Scottish Open, and posted seven top-10s. He also had a top-15 finish in three of the four majors: the Open Championship, U.S. Open and PGA Championship. He finished solo third last year in Phoenix behind Scheffler, who beat Patrick Cantlay in a playoff.
Burns had three wins last season and was a member of the Presidents Cup team. He was one of five golfers to win at least three times last season.
The field will be 132 with the winner taking home an oversized check good for $3.6 million. PGA Tour members have until 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 to commit to play in the 2023 WM Phoenix Open, Feb. 9-12.
Barring a long playoff, the tournament will conclude about 20 minutes before kickoff of the Super Bowl, which will be played about 30 miles to the west in Glendale.
