Is TPC Scottsdale’s Rowdy 16th Hole Good or Bad for the Phoenix Open?

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at Internationaled.org

Published: January 31, 2014

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For the other 51 weeks of the year, the hole is a vanilla par three. It measures 162 yards from the black tees, 100 from the white.

Carrying over some waste area, avoiding a few bunkers short of the green, the ball finds itself on a fairly large putting surface.

But for one week out of the year, the 16th hole at the TPC of Scottsdale is a haven for lunatics and loudness. Corporate hospitality boxes and bleachers surround the tee and extend toward the green.

It's a normal day during the Waste Management Phoenix Open when 15,000 people jam into an area that resembles a minor league baseball park.

When you play the hole as just an ordinary citizen, like I did a couple years ago, it's really not something that takes your breath away. Without the arena-like structure, it's just a little par three in between the risk/reward par-five 15th and the drivable par-four 17th.

But during this week, the 16th becomes something else. It's rowdy, respectful and disrespectful, rehearsed and spontaneous, funny and boring.

And for many, many years of this event's existence, it was generally a fun place to spend a day watching a field packed with some of the game's great names play an entertaining golf course.

It had become such a success that other tournament sites tried to recreate the atmosphere in Scottsdale. At Warwick Hills Country Club in Grand Blanc, Mich., the site of the now-defunct Buick Open, the 17th hole had become the most popular spot during the tournament. There weren't hospitality suites or bleachers, but loud fans surrounded the tee and green.



At the 84 Lumber Classic about an hour south of Pittsburgh, bleachers were erected behind the 17th green on the Mystic Rock Course at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. Fans were directed by tournament staff on how and when to make noise in an unsuccessful attempt to be like Scottsdale.

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Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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