If you have some football-crazy pals who have sworn off golf on television because it’s boring, do them a favor and forego the endless boredom of the Super Bowl’s pre-game babble, hours of it.
Do them a favor and put the Phoenix Open on your big screen. Yes, football fans, there IS booing in golf.
There is madness, there is craziness.
The Pro-Am in Phoenix draws more than 80,000. That’s right, 80,000 for a Pro-Am. Thursday pushed 105,000 and Friday will get toward 150,000.
Saturday is huge . The attendance will push 200,000 and about 20,000 each day will cram their way into the 16th hole, a stadium in and of itself that features about 165-yards of embarrassment for the unfortunate guys who miss the green with their tee shots.
The Phoenix Open is now the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, right there at No. 16. No doubt about it.
Why watch boring dead-air fillers before the Super Bowl when you can catch this action?
Defending champion Hideki Matsuyama got right in the thick of it with an opening 65 on Thursday a shot behind leader Matt Kuchar, the Olympic Bronze Medalist and winner of the “guy who smiles the most on tour” award. The guy Matsuyamaa beat in the playoff last year, Rickie Fowler, yeah, he’s right there too, opening with 67. Fowler makes golf fun and the fans love him. Fowler’s the Sara Lee of the PGA Tour and remember — nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.
This is new-school golf spectating. It’s loud, it’s rowdy, it makes the guys flinch back in Augusta. These aren’t patrons, they are simply The Rowdy Throng Of Phoenix, the Krewe Of Blackbeard, The Noise Machine — all rolled into one mass of humanity.
Footballs have been thrown and kicked into this crowd. Hats have been routinely passed out. The PGA Tour asked guys not to, but they do. Someone’s afraid somebody will fall out of the stands. After all, it IS The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, even if the PGA Tour won’t admit it. Yes, these fans are well-lubricated.
Put simply, this is the most-watched, in person, golf tournament in the world and nothing comes close.
So which would you rather have?
Some dull, re-hashed pre-Super Bowl bunk or some lives excitement at The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party?
Seems like a no-brainer.
