Beer cans landing on greens. Rowdy fans. Golfers taking their shirts off.
Sounds like quite a party.
But at a golf tournament? And a PGA Tour event no less?
That was the scene throughout the weekend on the par-3 16th at the WM Phoenix Open.
On Saturday, Sam Ryder made an ace on the 16th, and the beer flew out of the stands with cans landing on the green. Sunday, Carlos Ortiz did it, and the same happened.
Then Harry Higgs and Joel Dahmen took it up (or down) a notch. Dahmen had challenged his Twitter followers that if he got enough retweets, Higgs, who was playing with him, would take off his shirt on the 16th.
When Higgs drained his par putt, he gave the crowd what it expected — pulling up his shirt. Dahmen topped it by completely taking off his shirt and twirling it in the air as the beer flew once again.
Don’t expect that in the Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.
“Let’s just hope that no one takes their shirt off this week on the Champions Tour,” Jim Furyk quipped. “Wouldn’t be as pretty.”
“I guess that’s just Phoenix, right?” Furyk said. “Phoenix has always kind of had that history of being wild, being crazy. They usually get to a certain point where they push the panic button and try to draw it back, and then it creeps back up there back and forth, and I guess we haven’t seen players involved in the craziness.”
Players on Wednesday in the pro-am were fairly OK and understandable about the rowdiness and the beer showers, to a point.
“You know, that’s what that environment is set up for,” David Duval said. “That’s what is in some ways expected.
“I’m just — at least I’m not aware of anybody getting hit with the beer cans and things like that, so I’m happy that didn’t happen. That could be potentially a little bit dangerous. It certainly, when they’re landing on the putting surface, can affect the putting surface. Granted you’re allowed to repair it, but you can’t always see the bumps
and dents that these things make.”
Tom Lehman is very familiar with Phoenix, as a longtime Scottsdale resident.
“We’ve all seen the growth and the way the whole thing has transformed itself over the years,” he said. “It started with a TGI Fridays tent in back of the 16th tee on the hill there with all of the college kids hanging out there, to trying to get rid of all of the college kids that were too crazy and putting grandstands and then suites around there only to find out that the young professionals are worse than the college kids.
“The transformation, the evolution of that hole I think its remarkable. It’s such a huge benefactor to local charities. That hole alone creates about $10 million in revenue and a lot of that goes to local charities.”
For Chris DiMarco, who won the event in 2002 and nearly made an ace on the hole on the way to the victory, that part was his main issue.
“The thing about it is that as a player you’re kind of damned if you do, damned as you don’t,” he said. “Here’s the funny thing. this is what I don’t think a lot of the fans understand that if I was in those stands, I probably would’ve been doing the exact same thing. That’s kind of the way I am.
“I just feel like golf to me isn’t all that. i think that to a point. when the shirts started coming off, and now they started throwing beer cans, guys are chipping in and guys are throwing beer cans, it’s getting a little excessive.”
The eloquent Paul Goydos brought up a good point.
“I think coming to the Champions Tour and asking a bunch of old men what they think of that is probably not the best way to look at that,” he said. “They’re trying to get to a different crowd. I would imagine the ratings were fine. The guy wants to rip his shirt off, that’s really (PGA Tour Commissioner) Jay Monahan’s purview, not my purview.”
DiMarco described the crowd as 70% there to drink, 20% to be outside and maybe 10% there to watch golf, but also gave them props on their research on players.
“They know your high school team,” he said. “They know your dogs’ names. They do their research. It’s pretty cool how they do it.”
But he also said that while the celebrations got and do get a lot of the coverage on that hole, what happens the rest of the time isn’t always the case.
“It’s great, but as a player, they just don’t seem like they’re cheering for you,” he said. “They’d rather see a bad shot . I think they’d rather boo than not boo.”
Mark Calcavecchia’s daughter was there.
“She said it’s getting crazier each year,” he said.
Like much about the rise of the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods has a role. Back in 1997, Woods made a hole-in-one that literally shook the ground, as well as the windows on the clubhouse a few hundred yards away.
“I remember Tiger making the hole-in-one and kind of the tee box getting rained with beer cans and kind of covered up,” Furyk said.
Twenty-five years later, it’s bigger than ever.
“I think it’s awesome,” Lehman said. “I love it. It’s like guys making a hat trick (in hockey) and all of the hats go on the ice. I think you can’t say it’s a great tradition in one sport but not in the other. It’s unique in golf and I love it.”
“It simply is what it is, and if you don’t like it, don’t play,” Duval said.
