Don’t complain about the 16th Hole Rowdies “disrespecting” the playing areas at the Phoenix Open.
The PGA Tour wanted the power-drinking, screaming, let’s-be-part-of-the-action demographic and it got exactly that as the notoriety of the stadium setting at the TPC Scottsdale’s 16th hole increased ten-fold on Saturday afternoon.
Sam Ryder jarred his tee-shot on the 126-yard or thereabouts par three on the 25th anniversary of Tiger Woods raising the roof at 16 with a hole-in-one.
Back then, they showered the tee with water bottles as Tiger made his way to the green.
On Saturday, it was beer cans — lots of them, some empty, many half or three-quarters full, thus a longer throwing range.
Wasn’t that great a look as the green, the short-grass areas and bunkers were littered with cans and other debris.
Good thing Waste Management was the sponsor here. It took a bunch of volunteers 15 minutes to clean up the mess and that is how long Brian Harman had to wait to hit his tee shot.
Things got backed up as a result — not a good look either.
CBS was really playing it up. The network actually set up Amanda Balionis and Colt Knost at a desk located well back of the tee.
“Oh my god!” said analyst Knost. “There’s liquid coming down. There’s beer going everywhere.”
“We are covered in beer and other liquids, I believe,” said Balionis. “Everyone is going insane. We might have a slight rain delay here on the 16th because it’s going to take a little bit of cleanup.”
Some purists won’t like what transpired, others will say it’s great for the game — shows golf isn’t a stuffy, quiet-please sport.
As for the PGA Tour — it was simply a matter of Be Careful What You Wish For.
But Wait, There Was More On Sunday:
After the Ryder ace, things calmed down until Carlos Ortiz reached 16 fairly early on Sunday. It was only around 10:30 a.m. and the power-drinking crowd hadn’t gotten into all that much.
Ortiz hit a nine-iron that traveled all 178 yards and into the cup for a second ace. His was more than 50-yards longer than Ryder’s.
Once again, beer cans hit the air and littered the playing area.
Unlike Ryder, the 30-year-old Ortiz threw his hole-in-one ball into the crowd.
“They were throwing things at me, so I threw something back to them,” he said.
The last time there were two aces at 16 in the same event was 1997 when Tiger Woods made his, so did Steve Stricker.
Higgs Flashed, Dahmen Goes Full-On Shirtless:
Leave it to Harry Higgs.
Higgs holed a 10-foot par saving putt on Sunday at the 16th then promptly pulled up his shirt and displayed his substantial belly to the crowd.
It was something you couldn’t “un-see.”
Playing partner Joel Dahmen then topped his playing partner and totally took his shirt off.
All the two accomplished was a contribution to that popular belief that golfers aren’t athletes.
