Wasted Management Phoenix Open | How Much is Too Much

The Waste Management (WM) Phoenix Open has always carried the reputation as the party stop on the PGA Tour. A place for players and fans alike to let their hair down, drink, and be merry, each year a little more debauchery than the last. The wonderful thing about this PGA tour is that it is the pre-game to the Super Bowl, and typically comes down to the last few holes. This has always been a worthy upgrade over the lackluster pre-Super Bowl shows, allowing little space between the end of the golf, and beginning of football, leading to one of the best sports weekends of the year.

Although most of the holes at the WM have a buzz to them that you would not see at the typical tour stop, most of the craziness happens along the par 3, 16th hole. The hole is enclosed in stadium style seats as you can see from the above image, creating a unique backdrop unlike any other. Patrons flock to this area to get the best seats once the gates open for the day as it is the place to be. Players have embraced this environment around #16 by hyping up the crowd during their swings, which can result in boos if they miss the green, handing out gear, wearing sports jerseys, and caddie races to the green. This year was different...

The 2022 iteration on the tournament featured two hole-in-ones by Sam Ryder, Carlos Ortiz, and a chip in by Justin Thomas that resulted in beer cans being thrown onto the playing surface. There is an intersection of players/athletes and fans, and throwing objects is where that line ends. Safety concerns stand out as the main reason for this, you can see PGA Tour footage here of how close the cans come to players, caddies, and film crew here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqcsmUZU5ic . This behavior is discouraged in other spectator sports, ones that are much more fan involved and raucous as compared to golf. To be clear, more fun in and around the game of golf is a good thing for the growth of the game. But encouraging circumstances that could result in a player being hit by a foreign object appear to be a risk the PGA Tour should avoid. Feels like Icarus flying too close to the sun for me.

Check out my full thoughts and solution here, https://youtu.be/nO2jhpZOCV0 .