Waste Management Stadium Hole is Being Recreated at Next Week’s PGA Tour Event

The 16th hole at the Waste Management is now getting its first recreation at next week’s PGA Tour stop. It has been a 3 year work in progress to unveil a new stadium hole at the AT&T Bryon Nelson.

The hole of choice will be the 17th hole which looks like it will play about 147 yards depending on hole and tee box locations. 

The AT&T Byron Nelson is is debuting a brand new stadium hole called “Ranch17”🔥🙌https://t.co/jKp9JiMvDa

— SI Golf (@SI_Golf) May 4, 2023

The first edition will allow for a capacity of 6,000 seats at TPC Craig Ranch. The hole will be nicknamed “Ranch17” to honor Byron Nelson, one of golf’s great legends. Nelson famously won 11 tournaments in a row in 1945, and on top of that, he won 7 more times totaling his victory count to 18 in a single season. Over his career, he won 54 times, including 5 major wins. 

Tournament staff saw that the 17th hole in previous seasons was a huge gathering point for fans to soak in the action so they decided to get to work on the “Ranch17” project. According to Sports Illustrated Tournament Director of the event had this to say:

“Really this concept is three years in the making. Once we saw how people gathered around the area in our first year at TPC Craig Ranch, we knew this would be instrumental for our tournament. The popularity and the demand were there and it led to what you will see this year.”

“As we do every year, we will analyze all areas of the tournament after this year and adapt where needed. Once the vision and initial design were completed, the physical construction of the area takes approximately 3 months to bring the stadium concept to life. What started out as a casual sketch led to detailed renderings, which turned into a 6,000-person per-day venue.”

It will be intriguing to see how tournament staff of the Byron Nelson may scale the 17th hole up as they are the first on tour to try to replicate something on a larger scale like WM Open. 1st round coverage will start Thursday, May 11th, in the afternoon.

Cover Image Via SI Golf