In all, 15 golfers have withdrawn from the Pro-Am.
When Philip Knowles withdrew before the first round of the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a spot opened up for Jonas Blixt.
The 38-year-old Swede has only gotten into one PGA Tour event this season – he missed the cut at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship – so any chance to make a PGA Tour start is a good thing.
Blixt was also not in the field next week for the first full-field designated event of 2023, the WM Phoenix Open, so he made sure he threw his hat in the ring for the Monday qualifier, which some have dubbed an opposite-field event because of the sheer number of standout golfers.
Mother Nature, however, has other plans for Blixt and the 14 other golfers who made the belated cut Sunday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. High winds suspended play and has forced a Monday finish on the Monterey Peninsula.
But Monday also happens to be the qualifier for the $20 million WMPO at TPC Scottsdale. Blixt, who shot 72-72-64 over the first three rounds and will start the final round 7 under and tied for 13th, will cash a paycheck on the PGA Tour for the first time since last July at the 3M Open but he’ll miss out on a potential blockbuster payday at the Phoenix Open, where the winner will get $3.6 million.
Thems the breaks, as they say.
“It’s unfortunate that some participants are going to miss out of the WM Phoenix Open Monday Qualifier due to the weather issues they have been experiencing at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am,” said Bill Ibrahim, the COO of the Southwest Section PGA. “With a Monday finish now slated for that event, a large number of the 31 participants registered in both are inside the cut line and thus will not be able to be here. With the WM Phoenix Open the first designated event of the year, I assume it hurts a little more missing out on trying to qualify with the uncertainty of these designated events in the future.
“It’s just bad luck for these gentlemen but as the old saying goes, ‘you can’t control mother nature’. Hopefully it stings a little less since those making the cut are at least making a check this week.”
Here’s a closer look at the golfers who played in the Pro-Am who were also on the list for the Phoenix Open Monday qualifier.
Does it get any better than having your 12-year-old daughter plead your case in writing to the WM Phoenix Open tournament director?
A little less than a month ago, Aaron Baddeley’s 12-year-old daughter Jolee asked him if daddy would be playing in the WM Phoenix Open, which begins Feb. 9.
The 41-year-old resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, played in his hometown event for 18 consecutive years beginning in 2003 and won the title in 2007. But he has missed the last two playings of the “People’s Open” due to his limited status on the PGA Tour in recent years — he plays out of the past champion category. He answered his daughter that it wasn’t looking too good for him again this year. Even if he were to finish in the top 10 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am the week before, he’d likely not get into the 132-man field, which should be even more loaded now that the event has been upgraded to designated status and the purse soared to $20 million.
Baddeley explained that he likely would need to secure one of three spots available at the Monday Qualifier or be granted one of five unrestricted sponsor invites. Jolee was none too happy with this response and decided she was going to do her part to help his cause.
“I’m going to write them a letter,” Jolee said.
Baddeley didn’t blink.
“Go for it, babe,” he said.
Does it get any better than having your 12-year-old daughter plead your case in writing to the WM Phoenix Open tournament director?
“It was pretty awesome,” proud papa Baddeley said. “I didn’t have anything to do with it. She told him the reasons why they should invite me.”
Baddeley couldn’t recall word for word what his daughter wrote on his behalf but said it went something like this: He’s a local boy, past champion, works hard, almost won in Bermuda, still has a lot of game and is on the edge of playing great.
“She did it better than I ever could’ve done,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get in there.”
Aaron Baddeley celebrates with a “club drop” after making a birdie putt on the 16th hole during first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Ariz. on January 31, 2019. (Arizona Republic photo)
Chance Cozby, the WM Phoenix Open’s executive director, received the letter and wrote back to Jolee, one of Baddeley’s six children.
“First time I’ve received a letter from a child of a player,” Cozby confirmed. “It’s a nice touch. I thought it was unique, thought it was heartfelt.”
It’s too soon to say whether it will sway the tournament to grant Baddeley an exemption this year. Cozby noted that the decision ultimately rests in the hands of the tournament chairman, who this year is Pat Williams of the Thunderbirds, the charitable organization that hosts the event. In 2019, when Cozby was tournament chairman, he did grant Baddeley a sponsor invite into the tournament, so he has been a beneficiary of the tournament’s philanthropy before.
Of the tournament’s five sponsor invites, the WM Phoenix Open has announced two already: Charley Hoffman, a longtime ambassador for tourney sponsor WM, and J.B. Holmes, a two-time WM Phoenix Open champion; both Hoffman and Holmes were in need of a sponsor invite into the tournament for the first time.
Baddeley’s daughter’s letter brings to light how precious sponsor invites have become, especially in the age of the designated tournament era. A $20 million purse and $3.6 million share for the winner can be life-changing. It has sparked #LetterWritingSzn. Cozby said some are handwritten, some are pdf attachments and some are requests from agents on behalf of the player.
“We have 43 players that have written a letter. They’re all great players and we have to say no to most of them and that’s not fun,” he said. “We have eight players requesting a spot who are top 150 in the world and four who are top 100 in the world. Taylor Montgomery is 52nd (after capturing his eighth top 15 and fourth top-10 finish of the PGA Tour season at the American Express) and isn’t going to be in the field unless we give him a spot.”
Nathan Grube, longtime tournament director for the Travelers Championship, which also got bumped up to designated tournament status this season, can relate to how difficult a decision it is to make.
“It is one of the coolest and one of the hardest parts of the job,” he said of doling out sponsor invites, noting that the sheer number of requests means he can’t accommodate everybody but he will get back to anyone who writes in.
When told about Baddeley’s daughter and asked if he’s ever had the child of a player write a letter, he chuckled and said he had not. “That’s great,” Grube said. “You totally pulled the trump card. I don’t know how I can beat that.”
Baddeley failed to finish in the top 125 of the season-long FedEx Cup standings for the third straight year – he ranked 196. As a result, he can’t pick and choose his schedule and last season only got 13 starts in the regular season as a past champion. Baddeley has earned some early-season starts by Monday Qualifying, including at the season-opening Fortinet Championship, where he shot 7-under to make a playoff and made eagle on the second playoff hole to secure a spot in the field at Napa. He finished T-36 that week, T-6 at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship and converted a sponsor invite at the Sony Open in Hawaii into a season-best T-5 finish, which got him into The Amex last week.
“It’s definitely hard,” Baddeley said of relying on the goodwill of tournaments and going the Monday Qualifying route. “It’s probably harder on my family I would say than it is on me because it’s like, oh, you try and make plans and then you either get an invite or you’re top 10 or you Monday qualify or you don’t Monday qualify and you get back home.”
When he does get in a field, he said he treats the four-round tournament as if it is a Monday qualifier to get into the next event.
“Just a four-day qualifier, and there’s 10 spots instead of four,” he said.
At last year’s WM Phoenix Open, Sahith Theegala received the fifth and final exemption into the tournament after getting hot on the Tour’s West Coast Swing, and nearly won the tournament, finishing third. So, a good result at the Farmers Insurance Open this week could go a long way to helping Baddeley’s cause for one of three remaining exemptions still available. Jolee is counting on it.
“If we give him one that will be a nice story and if we don’t it makes us look like we don’t have a heart, but we do,” Cozby said.
Former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman: “I don’t think anybody could have anticipated what it’s become.”
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Phoenix Open was being held at the Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale for the first time and course designer Tom Weiskopf wanted to know what players thought of the place.
Tom Byrum had to think for a moment before answering.
“I guess all I could come up with was I didn’t realize how far out here it was,” Byrum recalled.
That was 1987. This week, the Open will return to the TPC Scottsdale for the 36th time. No one is questioning the locale anymore. Instead, the decision to move the tournament to the TPC has turned out to be one of the most inspired decisions in Arizona sports history.
“To have that be almost a Super Bowl every year for the Phoenix area. … I don’t think anybody anticipated that,” said former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman.
How could they? At the time, all the Tour and the Phoenix Thunderbirds had in mind was finding a more spacious venue than Phoenix Country Club, which had hosted the tournament on a permanent basis since 1975. By the mid-1980s the galleries had overwhelmed the course; the Thunderbirds began selling disposable cardboard periscopes so fans in the back could see over the heads of those in front of them.
After considering several options, including a makeover of Papago Golf Course, a decision was made build a new course inside the Phoenix Mountain Preserve, near the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs in north Phoenix. Beman and the Thunderbirds found a willing partner in a land developer but when they went to the Phoenix City Council for approval, Beman said, “We got our head handed to us. It was no way, Jose.”
That’s when Beman got a call from then-Scottsdale mayor Herb Drinkwater. Drinkwater said he had a piece of land he wanted Beman to see. Beman flew into Scottsdale Airpark and Drinkwater picked him up. On the drive Beman told Drinkwater that it would be difficult for the Thunderbirds to move the tournament outside of the city of Phoenix.
When they arrived at the property Drinkwater said, “Do you know where we are right now?”
“Yeah,” Beman said. “The city of Scottsdale.”
Drinkwater drove across the street.
“You know where we are now?” he said.
“No,” Beman replied.
“You’re in the city of Phoenix,” Drinkwater said. “You’re going to give this opportunity up because of a couple of feet?”
Beman was sold. He had seen how PGA Tournaments held “in the boonies” as he put it, facilitated growth and he was convinced the Phoenix Open would do the same for north Scottsdale.
“It didn’t bother me that the golf course was sort of pretty far from where the center of things were,” Beman said.
Others were. Pete Scardello was the chairman for the first tournament at TPC, in January of ’87. In the months leading up to the event he’d have lunch a couple of times per week at Phoenix Country Club, where he was a member. Invariably, his lunch would be served with a side of derision.
“Other members would say, ‘Hey, Pete, I like you but nobody is going to go to the tournament out there,’ ” Scardello recalled.
The fear of sparse galleries was the least of Scardello’s concerns. He thought fans would come to appreciate the easy sight lines and ability to move around without feeling like they were in a cramped bus station. But when it came to putting the first tournament on he and the rest of the Thunderbirds were in the dark – figuratively and literally.
“We didn’t know what we were doing because we hadn’t been there before,” Scardello said. “I was the crash dummy. We didn’t realize until we got out there that there was no electricity to the site. We had to bring in a power line from APS (Arizona Public Service) and pay for that.”
Roping off the fairways took three hours at Phoenix Country Club. It took the better part of two days at the TPC. On Thursday Scardello was told on his walkie-talkie that his wife needed to talk to him. He found a phone, called her and she said, “I’m out here on No. 15. You’ve got six (portable toilets) and 25 people in each line. I would suggest you get more.”
“I think we ended up with 20,” Scardello said. “There were just all kinds of different things, from busses to security, that we didn’t realize the scope of what we were undertaking. We had never done anything that big.”
Bob Hope works the crowd at TPC Scottsdale during the 1987 Phoenix Open. (Photo: The Arizona Republic)
Still, the initial tournament, won by Paul Azinger, was an immediate hit. Attendance for the week was 257,000, compared to 186,000 the year before. In the weeks following the event fans told Scardello they had stopped going to the tournament because it was too crowded at Phoenix Country Club.
“We got out here and it wasn’t crowded at all,” they said. “It’s really nice.”
It’s a bit more crowded these days, of course. The 2018 tournament hosted closed to 720,000 fans for the week. That was the last year tournament organizers announced attendance figures.
“It’s like the Super Bowl of golf tournaments,” said Champions Tour player Steve Jones, who played in the ’87 event and won it in ’97.
The stadium concept at the par-3 16th hole gets much of the credit for the tournament’s growth but Byrum believes the unique atmosphere, at least initially, had more to do with alcohol than aces.
“I don’t know what the attraction was other than there was beer being served for a long time,” Byrum said. “There was a beer stand on a hill that stayed open longer and it was perfect little amphitheater for people to gather around.”
Whatever the reason, the Open has come a long way since its dark beginning.
“I don’t think anybody could have anticipated what it’s become,” Beman said. “It evolved on its own. I’m very proud of it, honestly.”
Editor’s note: This story was originally published January 31, 2016, and written by Scott Bordow of the Arizona Republic, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, and updated to reflect 2022 is the 36th playing of the Phoenix Open.
The Waste Management Phoenix Open is truly like no other event on the PGA calendar. Golfers arrive knowing that they’ll be playing in front of an enormous and unusually rowdy crowd. But they also have to deal with all the obstacles that come with golf in the middle of the desert.
Like, I’ve been there when a bobcat was seen running around the course at TPC Scottsdale during play. It was wild. But I don’t think I’ve seen a golfer hurt himself on a cactus until today, but to his credit, even Xander Schauffele admitted it was a mistake.
On the par-4 6th, Schauffele found himself in a bit of trouble with a patch of cacti somewhat obstructing his shot. And because part of that cactus wasn’t fixed into the ground — it was a “loose impediment” — he was allowed to move it.
"Seemed like a good idea at the time." 😂
Xander Schauffele moved a cactus out of the way and immediately regretted it 🌵 pic.twitter.com/LBFlJewukL
Schauffele went with his bare hands to move the cactus, and those sharp spines got his finger. Schauffele could have asked his caddie for help, used a towel or even a club to move the cactus. Going for it barehanded was bold. And after picking out the spines from his finger, he joked, “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Rookie mistake.
Despite getting pricked there, Schauffele would manage to save par on the hole. He finished four-under for the day.
The Waste Management Phoenix Open will get underway with Round 1 on Thursday morning from the beautiful TPC Scottsdale.
The Waste Management Phoenix Open will get underway with Round 1 on Thursday morning from the beautiful TPC Scottsdale.
This is one of the best and most rowdy weekends in golf including the famous 16th hole which is always a good time. Brooks Koepka will return to TPC Scottsdale after winning the 2021 WM Open title and will be amongst some of the best golfers in the world.
Here’s everything you need to know to follow the action, including Featured Groups for PGA TOUR LIVE and expanded coverage on ESPN+.
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Featured Groups & Holes: 9:45 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET on ESPN+
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Attendance at next month’s Waste Management Phoenix Open will be capped at 5,000 fans per day as the pandemic continues to surge in Arizona.
Attendance at next month’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, which was going to be capped at a reported 8,000 spectators daily due to COVID concerns, is being reduced even further as the pandemic continues to surge in Arizona.
Tournament director Scott Jenkins announced on Wednesday that the daily attendance limit will be fewer than 5,000 people per day, Wednesday-Sunday, for the PGA Tour event at TPC Scottsdale scheduled for Feb. 1-7. That incorporates Wednesday’s traditional pro-am day as well as all four rounds of the tournament.
“The tournament will implement strict COVID safety protocols including, but certainly not limited to, the mandatory wearing of masks throughout the entire tournament grounds and thermal screening of every guest upon entry,” Jenkins said in the statement. “The expansive, 192-acre, open-aired layout of TPC Scottsdale is conducive to social distancing, and combined with stringent COVID safety protocols in place, The Thunderbirds are confident we can conduct a safe and responsible tournament in February.”
Few golf events have had any fans in attendance since the PGA Tour restarted last June. The Vivint Houston Open in November was the first to allow spectators and had about 2,000 fans on hand each day.
“The Thunderbirds continue to work closely with the PGA TOUR, local government and health officials in preparation to have limited fans at the 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open,” the statement said. “Since returning to competition in June of 2020, the PGA TOUR has a successful track record of health and safety in the communities in which they play, including several events with ticketed spectators. We remain hopeful we can host an extremely limited number of socially distanced fans at “The People’s Open.”
