The Greatest Show on Grass

The Waste Management Phoenix Open is underway this week. The tournament draws close to 500,000 spectators, which is about five times more than the weekly average attendance for PGA tournaments! It is truly "the greatest show on grass". The par-3 16th hole is known as the most raucous hole on the PGA Tour and it is substantially more tame now than 10 years ago. Since 1987, the tournament has been played at the TPC of Scottsdale Stadium Course, which was specifically designed for spectator golf with large mounding and great site lines. But the best views are not within the ropes. All of the beautiful people in Scottsdale come out for the golf tournament, although many come at the end of the day or after the golf to go to the Bird's Nest, the after-hours bar and music venue set up for the golf tournament. The charitable organization, the Thunderbirds, run the golf tournament like a well-oiled machine. The Phoenix Open makes more money for charity that any other PGA tour event.

The golf course is pretty easy for the pros. The winning score is usually 16 to 20 under par. The par-5 holes are all reachable in two shots and there is one par-4 that is reachable from the tee box. Phil Mickelson drove the green on Thursday with a three-wood. But the crown jewel of the course is the 160 yard par-3 16th hole. The players enter through an underpass between the grandstands and as each player comes into view the fans break out into the golfer's college fight song or other parody song and the noise does not always die down on the tee box. If a golfer misses the green there is a lot of good-natured booing. When the tournament moved to Scottsdale in 1987, the college students sat on the hills surrounding the 16th hole and drank beer and sang fight songs. Over the years, the Thunderbirds took advantage of the reputation of the 16th hole and started building stands for VIPs. The apex of the hysteria on the 16th hole was Tiger Woods' hole-in-one in 1997. The thunderous noise of the crowd was heard for miles. Now, the 16th hole is completely enclosed in a bowl with VIP skyboxes surrounding the tee box and green and stands along both sides of the short fairway. I am not sure that is progress, but all of the money raised on the 16th hole (and elsewhere) goes to local charities.