SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — If you’ve been watching the WM Phoenix Open, you’ve probably noticed the Beer Snake. You might not have known that’s what you were looking at it, but it’s real.
And it’s spectacular.
As you might imagine, beer is consumed in large quantities on the famous 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, and the Beer Snake is one long stack of the empty plastic beer cups.
When fans finish off a cup of liquid refreshment, they start stacking. The plastic cups are actually cool souvenirs with the WM Phoenix Open’s 16th hole logo on them, but when the Beer Snake gets going, there’s no stopping the fun.
In 2023, security actually did break up the Beer Snake.
This year, the Beer Snake is back. Golf Channel showed it in all its green glory several times Friday during second-round coverage. Expect more of the same Saturday, always the loudest, wildest and most highly attended day of the week.
Early in the week, it seemed tournament officials were more than OK with the Beer Snake in 2024, as there is a can koozie for sale in the Fan Shop with the “Make the Snake” slogan on it.
On Saturday, an officer with the Scottsdale Police Department was seen confiscating a long stack of the green cups.
You might partially credit Sam Ryder for this phenomenon.
After he made a hole-in-one on the 16th hole in 2022, hundreds of fans chucked their beer cans and aluminum bottles down, many of them half-full or more, onto the par-3 hole.
The next year, tournament organizers, citing safety concerns, started serving beer in those plastic cups instead. Now, instead of throwing, they’re stacking at the Phoenix Open.