Scott Jenkins – Syndication Server

Waste Management Phoenix Open goes off according to plan, despite COVID

It was a strange week in the history of the Phoenix Open, but a successful one nonetheless.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Scott Jenkins smiled as he admired his friend, Dr. Michael Golding, who was posing for photos under a scoreboard bearing his name.

Jenkins’ time as Waste Management Phoenix Open chairman had officially come to an end Sunday evening at TPC Scottsdale with the awarding of the championship trophy to Brooks Koepka, and it was time to revel a little in the accomplishment of making it to the end of a tournament unlike any other in its 86-year history.

Golding’s tenure begins as chairman for the 2022 event, which everyone involved hopes will be much closer to the way things were before the coronavirus pandemic changed so much.

“It’s been nine months of incredibly hard work to get here. A lot of roller coaster ups and downs, you know. Obviously COVID, we’re all trying to deal with it the best we can, and especially those Arizona spikes (in cases),” Jenkins said. “Just kind of staying committed to the plan. And then it got to Open week and then it was just about execution. I was never really worried about executing our plan because our group and our staff is the best. It was just getting off the tarmac, getting in the air and once we took off, we were going to be OK.”

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Jenkins, assistant chairman Golding and the Thunderbirds got through a Phoenix Open that saw limited attendance, a less-rambunctious atmosphere at the notorious 16th hole and everywhere else, and the constant enforcement of wearing masks. Not to mention the absence of some activities typically available to the masses that attend annually.

Despite the undoubtedly different feel to the 2021 Phoenix Open, it was still the most-attended PGA Tour event in almost a year, with several thousand fans allowed on the course daily.

“There’s always silver linings in everything,” Jenkins said. “This just made us better at running this tournament. We had to look at different ways of being creative and just look at our expenses. It’s easy to deal with your partners when times are good.

“We really relied upon our partners, our vendors, as well as the (PGA) Tour and the city of Scottsdale.”

For Jenkins, seeing fans pay attention to washing hands, wearing masks and watching their distance was what stood out. If there was any doubt, he said, it was whether fans and officials would abide by protocols, and if enforcing those would be problematic.

It wasn’t an issue, Jenkins said. And all week, the players expressed their gratitude at having fans there to cheer them on.

“My best results come with fans, so I’m excited to have them back,” said tournament champion Brooks Koepka.

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“They (players) recognize it’s not a sustainable model to continue to not have fans forever,” Jenkins said. “Thankfully, we were in a position, due to the success of our past tournaments, that we were pretty healthy and we were willing to take the risk and build even when things weren’t great.

“Ultimately if it didn’t make sense and we didn’t have fans, we were still going to have a structure on the 16th hole and do something cool there.”

Jenkins hopes things line up for Golding in terms of suites and hospitality.

Golding said he looks forward to bringing back the energy from 2020, but in a safe way.

“I think we’re going to bounce back,” Golding said. “It’s an honorable position to be the tournament chairman and I’m going to work as hard as I can to put on the best event possible next year.”

Golding credited the fans for wearing masks and thanked the community for continued support.

“Knowing that this year would be different, it’s daunting to try and get it back to normal, but I’m ready,” Golding said. “I’ve got 54 guys behind me that are ready to do that as well. You saw what we (Thunderbirds) did this week.

“There’s nothing we can’t do.”

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Finally, some fans. PGA Tour players talk about return of spectators at Waste Management Phoenix Open

The Waste Management Phoenix Open will have fans on site, one of the few PGA Tour events to welcome spectators during the global pandemic.

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The Greenest Show on Grass is also the Rowdiest Outdoor Party Where Sometimes Fans Actually Stop To Watch Golf.

Officially, it’s the Waste Management Phoenix Open and it’s back this week, although in a decidedly toned-down form.

Always the most highly attended PGA Tour event of the season, there are typically an estimated 200,000 fans who pass through the turnstiles just for Saturday’s third round, always the busiest day of the party… err, tournament. The crowds usually swell well north of 700,000 for the entire week.

But the world ain’t what it used to be and that goes for the Phoenix Open.

“It’s going to feel like nothing,” said Jon Rahm ahead of the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego last week. Rahm is always a crowd favorite at TPC Scottsdale because he went to nearby Arizona State.

“Relative to how the tournament normally plays, I think it will feel like there’s no one out there,” said Xander Schauffele before the Farmers.

Spectators have been scarce since the Tour returned to action last summer. The Vivint Houston Open in November had about 2,000 fans per day on site. The Mayakoba Golf Classic in Mexico also had some fans on site. Expectations are that there will be about 5,000 fans per day at the Phoenix Open, although Waste Management Phoenix Open Tournament Director Scott Jenkins said they’re not committing to a specific number.

“Last week in Abu Dhabi there was some fans. It wasn’t 5,000 but there was about 100 out there and it felt good,” said Rory McIlroy at Torrey Pines last Wednesday, a few days after he played in the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. “It felt good to hit a good shot and get a clap and get a reaction. I’m looking forward to welcoming fans back.”

Most of the Phoenix Open’s VIP suites and grandstands were not erected this year but the 16th hole “coliseum” was constructed once again to enclose the craziest par 3 in golf. Normally big enough to hold as many fans as an NBA arena, it will house far fewer this year.

“Normally our 16th hole is three stories and houses 16,000 people. This year it’s one story, still yet to determine how many people we’re going to have in there, but obviously much reduced,” Jenkins said.

A view of the 16th hole in mid-January during the build out at the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale, the site of the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Photo by Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic

Per COVID protocols, all fans will have their temperature checked upon entry. Masks will be mandatory and the policy will be enforced, said Jenkins. The seating areas will be spaced out. “It’s a 192-acre golf course,” he said. “We think it’s very conducive to social distancing.”

So whether it is indeed 5,000 fans allowed in each day or something close, it’ll have to do this time around.

“We’re entertainers, so when you have the feedback from the crowd, it’s a lot more enjoyable,” Rahm said. “We’re going to miss the usual atmosphere in Phoenix. It’s a very unique event, it’s a very fun event and everybody will be missed, but 5,000 is better than nothing.”

After Phoenix, the Tour goes back to California for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am and the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles. Neither event will have fans. After that, it’s time for the Florida swing with tournaments that will have fans but not a lot of them.

“It’s going to be gradual, I don’t think anything’s going to be at capacity or 100 percent for a while, but the fact that Phoenix is going to have 5,000, maybe the Florida events might have a little bit more that,” McIlroy said. “Gradually welcoming people back as the vaccine gets rolled out and we try to get back into a more normal world, I think it’s a good thing.”

As for the Phoenix Open’s Bird’s Nest, the normally packed concert venue that is the golf tournament’s nightly after-party Wednesday through Saturday, it’s off this year. Look for it to return in all its glory in 2022.

This year, the Phoenix Open will be distilled down to a quaint event with all the focus on the golf.

Imagine that.

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Waste Management Phoenix Open forges on with plan for fans to attend

Fans can still have fun in the sun at TPC Scottsdale but will have to follow COVID safety protocols and mask-wearing will be enforced

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The most highly attended event on the PGA Tour is the Waste Management Phoenix Open. And it could be true again in 2021, even with a severely scaled down fan presence.

Few Tour events have had any fans at all since the restart last June. The Vivint Houston Open two months ago was the first to welcome them back, with about 2,000 fans on hand each day.

The Thunderbirds, who run the Phoenix Open, stopped announcing daily attendance numbers a few years ago, choosing instead to put the emphasis dollars raised for charities rather than people coming through the turnstiles.

But they’re committed to having fans on site and this year, they have already sold out of the $100 and $125 general-admission tickets for the tournament, Feb. 4-7, at TPC Scottsdale.

“We’re very encouraged and very thankful that our community came right in and bought all the general admission tickets,” tournament director Scott Jenkins said on Thursday. “Friday and Saturday were gone in about 12 hours.”

With less than a month to go before the Phoenix Open, there is still much to do but it’s almost time for some golf at TPC Scottsdale.

“It’s been a long year for everyone, not just on the Waste Management Phoenix Open front. It’s been a long year for our country. I’m happy we’re about 25 days away,” Jenkins said. “It’s taken a lot of different shapes and planning but we think we have a really good plan in place and we’re going to execute on it.”

Per COVID protocols, all fans will have their temperature checked upon entry. Masks will be mandatory and the policy will be enforced, said Jenkins. The seating areas will be spaced out.

“It’s a 192-acre golf course,” Jenkins said. “We think it’s very conducive to social distancing.

“The world is divided on this topic. We look around the country at the various sporting events, football. … you know, we think we have a good plan in place. We understand people that are cautious about us having events but we think we’ve talked to the best in the business about this, as far as the experts. Again, it’s utilizing the full 192 acres, with spreading people out.”

The 68th rendition of the event will no doubt look different and while the infamous 16th hole won’t have its typical thousands of raucous fans in attendance, there will still be a coliseum surrounding the par-3 hole with fans on just the top deck.

There will be other “fans” there as well, called Faces on 16.

“A lot of different sports have cardboard cutouts of fans. This is our take on it,” Jenkins said. “We’ll have banners with peoples’ faces on it. You can buy them on our website. All the money is going to four different charities that all deal with kids. Boys & Girls Clubs, Phoenix Children’s Hospitals so if you can’t make it out there, you can still help us fundraise.

“Normally our 16th hole is three stories, houses 16,000 people. This year it’s one story, still yet to determine how many people we’re going to have in there, but obviously much reduced,” Jenkins said. “The other thing is typically in a normal year, you’re able to walk around the entire 16th hole. This year we’ve divided it into four different sections and you’ll be restricted to your section. That’s all COVID protocol. Mandatory masks.

“At the end of the day, it’ll be treated a lot like a restaurant: when you’re at your table and you’re dining, you can have your mask off. But when you’re moving around, we ask that you have your mask on and it will be enforced.”

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