Did the WM Phoenix Open Finally Go Too Far?

Nick Taylor opened the Waste Management Phoenix Open with a round of 60. He closed it with three birdies on his final four holes on the Sunday, vaulting himself into a playoff with none other than Charlie Hoffman, the 47-year-old who bombed his drive 338 yards down the 72nd hole. Taylor has the clutch gene, and he’s not going to let us forget it.

Now, you may have heard more about what happened outside the ropes this week in Phoenix, rather than the actual golf being played. The inclement weather meant another stop-start event on the PGA Tour following last week’s 54-hole delivery of the AT&T. What was likely worse news for the fans in Arizona was that alcohol sales had to be paused over the weekend, due to the madness of the crowds.

The Waste Management is known as the most raucous event on the schedule. It’s actually golf – but louder. In this case perhaps too loud. Check out some of the player-fan interactions this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Here’s Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson deciding enough is enough and requesting that a loud fan be thrown out. It got pretty heated, and he was right up against the ropes pleading his case.

A few minutes later, Billy Horschel exchanged words with some fans, lamenting them for shouting during the player’s backswing.

First Zach, now Billy. The players are fighting back today! pic.twitter.com/74pGX7qVxC

— Sam Harrop (@sam_golf) February 11, 2024

Jordan Spieth finished one-handed due to fans distracting him down 18 on Sunday, but in true Spieth/Matsuyama style the ball finished 15 feet away from the hole. Pretty easy to lip-read what Spieth said here.

Benny An took to X when asked about the crowds at the Waste Management on the weekend. He replied:

“Shitshows. Totally out of control on every hole.”

A brief summary here from Michael McEwan lists the negatives from the week in terms of crowd control. Or lack of it.

It includes organisers having to close the gates, pausing alcohol sales, players comforting spectators, a fan doing the sand angel in a bunker, videos of fans fighting, mudslides, beer snakes, injuries and more.

LIV Adelaide was pretty wild in golf terms, with the LIV fans sharing far and wide the footage of fans enjoying themselves. It was a comparison to the incredible scenes in Phoenix in 2023, where Harry Higgs and Joel Dahmen famously showed off their beach bodies on 16. Then the Waste Management 2024 tried to one-up themselves and failed miserably.

In other news, LIV had their event in Vegas, another Dustin Johnson win and another quiet week. They’re in Vegas on Super Bowl weekend and hardly drew a crowd. The issue now for LIV is its going to be a handful of guys week on week. The gap between Rahm, DJ and the others is enormous, and in a 48-man field its even easier to just see the same names.

Makes us realise that it doesn’t really matter who is in contention, DJ can have a putt for $4 million and attract 148,000 on the YouTube live stream, but a playoff that Nick Taylor birdied the 72^nd to get into, against 47-year-old Charley Hoffman? Everyone’s hooked. Elite golf, underdog stories and something to play for. Tick all three and you’ve got a good product.

I think it’s good to tune in to LIV on the Friday for continuous golf – as the PGA is just following two or three groups with guys in contention, quickly cutting to a guy nowhere near the lead with ‘just a moment ago’ meaning he probably holes his long putt or bunker shot, then cut back to the leaders throwing grass to test the wind.

However, as soon as the PGA Tour event gets into the weekend, it’s an easy switch over to the main event. The playoff on Sunday saved the Waste Management from a barrage of bad press as it turned out to be a really exciting finish, despite eating into the Super Bowl time slot, which means a lot of people will have tuned out. Scenes on the final green of fans signing ‘O Canada’ to Nick Taylor as he clutched his young son were pretty wholesome, and allowed us to forget the chaotic scenes over the weekend. I’ll attach one more for your entertainment.

No one wants to be the fun police and it is funny to see people springing to their seats at the Waste Management. It’s probably one of the highlights of the college semester out there. But as soon as players are feeling aggravated on the course, and people are at genuine risk at the event, something has to be done. Causing the pause of alcohol sales will be a badge of honour for some frat boys, so they have to monitor how they go about managing this for 2025. It looked like Happy Gilmore at times.

Waste? Yes, lots of it. Management? Hardly. They’ll need to treble security next year; if any players attend at all. It looked dangerous at times, and shows it doesn’t take much to go from funny to stupid. You can blame the mixture of college kids and alcohol, but something has to be done or the top guys won’t be anywhere near Phoenix next February. A good week for Viktor Hovland to take off!

On the flip side, the players know the history of the tournament and the reputation it has now garnered as being the craziest event on the schedule. If they bought into it, I’m sure it’d be well received by the fans. Although the footage this year showed a few fans definitely taking it too far, a handful of drunk guys shouldn’t tarnish the entire crowd. If they can monitor a select few a bit closer next year, and the player are ready for the occasion, it could work well. Perhaps mild-mannered Captain ZJ just isn’t the guy for this field anymore.

Cover Image via Cronkite News