Did Things Go Too Far at the Phoenix Open?

Drunk fans and showers of beer cans proved a hot talking point at TPC Scottsdale’s raucous 16th hole

- By Mark Townsend. Photographs by Getty Images

There can be little doubt the Phoenix Open has become one of the great spectacles in golf – not only on the PGA Tour but the game as a whole. The combination of a star-studded field and the risk-reward nature of TPC Scottsdale creates a tournament that delivers non-stop entertainment. When you throw in the rowdy and, let’s face it, often unruly and drunken nature of the massive galleries, it only adds to the significant allure of the event.

Pretty much all of its attraction is based around the 16th hole, a short par 3 surrounded entirely by grandstands, 20,000 punters and enormous quantities of alcohol.

But is this the route professional golf wants to go down and the image it wishes to portray? Or are we happy to accept this is just one isolated event of the year before we return to the weekly hush of the crowds?

On the Saturday of the tournament last month, Sam Ryder knocked in a short-iron at the 124-yarder and there was absolute bedlam as beer bottles and drinks very quickly filled the green. It was the first hole-in-one since Francesco Molinari in 2015.