Why is the 16th Hole So Rowdy at the Waste Management Phoenix Open?
By The Big Lead
Golf fans wait in respectful silence all year until the Waste Management Phoenix Open — a place where they can let their freak flags fly. Something about the greater Scottsdale area encourages a great release.
The incredible scene at TPC Scottsdale's 16th hole is as good as any in golf and totally unique. But why? Why is it so rowdy there when being seen but not heard is the order of the day everywhere else?
Waste Management Phoenix Open 16th Hole
The 163-yard par-3 is not the most architecturally interesting golf hole. It doesn't require a tremendous amount of strategy and one really has to mess up to earn a double bogey. Yet there's nothing else like it. Golfers arriving on the tee are treated to an atmosphere that feels more like a rock concert than a back nine. Stadium seating surrounds everything and the drinks get flowing early and often. Throw a dart within whispering distance of the pin and the roars are thunderous. Skull one 89 feet away into some heavy cabbage and here come the jeers. It really is meritocracy. It doesn't matter who you are or what you have or haven't done. The only thing that matters is how you do on that hole. And it's fantastic.
The Phoenix extended universe has been a stop since 1932 and the venerable tournament moved to its current location after TPC was built in 1987. For the first several years, the 16th was remarkably normal. Then organizers decided to built that bad boy out and the party grew generically from there.
Holes-in-one at the 16th Hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open
Caddie Network has been helpful enough to compile a list of all the players to ever find perfection from the tee box.
2022: Carlos Ortiz, 16th hole, 9-iron, 178 yards.
2022: Sam Ryder, 16th hole, sand wedge, 124 yards.
2015: Francisco Molinari, 16th hole, pitching wedge, 144 yards.
2011: Jarrod Lyle, 16th hole, 8 iron, 150 yards.
2002: Mike Sposa, 16th hole, 7-iron.
1997: Steve Stricker, 16th hole, 6-iron.
1997: Tiger Woods, 16th hole, 9-iron.
1991: Jay Delsing, 16th hole, 9-iron.
1990: Brad Bryant, 16th hole.
1990: David Edwards, 16th hole.
1988: Hal Sutton, 16th hole.