BIGGEST in GOLF
FindingMy Way THROUGH THE
maybe it was Tequila Street. Or was it Vodka Street? Music was pumping, and every
I
drink you could dream up could be ordered—or created. (It wasn’t a chal- lenge to find a friendly vendor who would dump a shot of Baileys Irish Cream into our coffee on a drizzly Friday at noon. It’s 5 o’clock some- where in Scottsdale!) Women strolled through the drink booth laden “food court” in full-on club attire, and guys were armed with drinks in both hands. All we had done was walk through
the entrance of the Waste Manage- ment Phoenix Open, with the goal of migrating to the infamously raucous 16th hole. As we took in the mid- night-like scene, Padraig Harrington
was looking for the 18th green at TPC Scottsdale—and I stumbled across Bourbon Street instead. Or
and his bag-toting caddie appeared, walking through the middle of the food court, apparently to the clubhouse. He was serenaded
with “Paddyyyy!” and Har- rington obliged with a smile and a courteous tip of the hat. “Where am I?” I thought
to myself while chuckling. A club with cameos from professional golfers? Maybe I should have asked Har- rington how to get to the 18th green. Instead, I grabbed a
second beer, before trying to figure out where the other 150,000 fans hang out. We emerged from the food court
behind the grandstands to discover the 18th green. The Phoenix Open is often described as a zoo, with the fans painted as unruly wild animals. I agree that the Phoenix Open is a zoo, but I think the metaphor is flipped. While I won’t debate (or judge) the decorum of the fans, the viewing experience is actually similar to going to a zoo (well, maybe an alcohol-infused one). Fans roam the meandering course
as they please, carrying on regular, uninterrupted conversation. The golf tournament truly just happens to be going on the background. There isn’t any of the forced silence, hushed whispers and standing at attention that is required everywhere else. Fans simply come and go as they
please, and stop at exhibits (players or shots) that might catch their eye. There is a constant movement and buzz throughout the gallery—with an occasional drunken laugh rising a few decibels above the noise— which actually makes the Phoenix Open feel like a sporting event. Or at least a popular restaurant on a Saturday night. And that’s before you get to the
fully enclosed stadium hole, which has transformed the innocuous little No. 16 into golf ’s coliseum, with a little college basketball student sec- tion rowdiness thrown in. “It reminds me of when I go to
Fenway Park,” Red Sox fan Keegan Bradley told The New York Times. “There’s always like a murmur. There’s always a little ambient noise.” The 20,000-seat hole is lined
primarily with luxury suites, but there are Wrigleyville-like bleacher seats down the right side for the general public. We waded into a sea of beer cans, displacing them with each step, until we found a seat, where we natu- rally drank more beer. The first time we saw a golfer miss
the green, the crowd booed, its way of giving a thumbs down to the emperor. Bogeys were booed. Ambivalent
shots to 30 feet were met with disap- pointed indifference. The most memo- rable shots were pros escaping No. 16—really a generic hole without this unique setup—with testy par putts,
There are 20,000 people who jam into the seats around No. 16 at TPC Scottsdale.
18 /
NCGA.ORG / SPRING 2015
PHOTO: AP
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