(Waste Management Phoenix Open)
The Waste Management Phoenix Open lived up to its name as the rowdiest tournament of the PGA Golf schedule this weekend. Fans sprinting to the 16th green, ripping t-shirts off and sliding down mud-filled hills belly first, shutting down alcohol sales due to too many blackouts, and even a few streakers: one guy dressed as William Wallace from Braveheart, another jumped into a bunker and did snow angels.
The tournament had so much going on that you could’ve easily forgotten there was golf being played in the background of the chaos. A couple of PGA professionals were not huge fans of the behavior of the patrons in Scottsdale.
Specifically, Zach Johnson was seen getting into it with a fan over the fan mocking him for his horrific Ryder Cup Captain performance this past fall in Italy. Another fan got into it with US golfer Billy Horschel for talking during a back-swing. South Korea’s An Byeong-Hun described the last day as “completely out of control”.
“The People’s Open”, the nickname for this weekend's tournament, seemed to be a little out of control this year. Some potential changes could be coming to next year's tournament to crack down on mishaps and unhappy PGA professionals.
I think the Waste Management is cool and trendy, but too much. A few years back it was niche, rowdy but not too rowdy, and exciting. It’s chaotic now, where golf fans feel like they’re untouchable and the respect for the game and the players dwindles. It’s less like a fun but booze-filled tailgate vibe, and more like first night of college and no parent's blackout vibe.
On the spectrum of get ‘off my lawn old guy’ to let chaos reign, I’m probably dead-smack in the middle. There’s fun to be had, it’s cool that it’s different, but people getting taken away in ambulances may be too much. What changes will come of today? We’ll find out soon.
As far as the golf is concerned, it was a very entertaining week. Heading into the final round there were several golfers at the top of the leaderboard who were within striking distance. It seemed inevitable that Scottie Scheffler would make his move at one point to make it three Waste Management Open Championships in a row. He did make his move, holding a solo lead on the final day, but then his putter went cold.
45-year-old Charley Hoffman was unstoppable on the weekend, posting back-to-back 64’s en route to a -21. He looked to have secured his first tournament victory since 2016 as Nick Taylor was 3 back with 4 to play.
Taylor got hot. He birdied 15, 16, and 18 to take Hoffman back to the 18th tee box for free golf! Taylor knocked in a birdie, and Hoffman amazingly matched to send it to another playoff hole. There, Hoffman missed a 28-foot birdie attempt, leaving the door open for Taylor. You guessed it, he knocked it home, this time for $1.5 million.
Taylor looked unflappable, incredibly confident, and unfazed by the chaos around him. Since posting an opening round of 60 on Thursday, his name was a staple at the top of the leaderboard. He survived early and late round pushes from the likes of Sahith Theegala and Scottie Scheffler, and took old man Charley Hoffman to deep water with his brilliant late Sunday charge.
Entering the tournament, Taylor was 120-1 odds, continuing a wild run of triple-digit long odds winners in the early PGA schedule. This is the second win of his career, the first being his tournament victory on his home soil: the RBC Canadian Open.
It so often seems that one of these guys shoots up the leaderboard early in the week and then falls off, similar to what we saw from Andrew Novak this weekend. This season, these guys have held on. It’s refreshing.
This weekend was as good as the PGA gets in respect to play. Drama, big and small names at the top of the leaderboard, and a wild comeback to bring extra golf. While the world was watching the Super Bowl, the PGA was putting high-quality golf content out on a different channel. Taylor earned his victory, wire-to-wire. Canada has something to celebrate while the world tuned into its neighbor on its southern border.
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