The Other Side To That Big Party In Phoenix

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I’ll fully admit the par-3 16th Stadium hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open provides some of my favorite moments during the Tour year. Raucous fans. Heavy betting. And the players appear have sucked it up to finally embrace the mayhem–which gives the sport a welcome “common man versus elitist feel.”

But, there’s another side to ponder.

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch explains what happens behind the scenes.

There is much to admire about the WMPO in daylight hours, too. It has raised more than $120 million for charity and every year draws more fans than any other PGA Tour stop – 655,434 in 2017. But some other statistics aren’t so admirable.

Last year there were 118 arrests at TPC Scottsdale, most for alcohol-related incidents, a figure that doesn’t include DUI busts as spectators hook and slice their way home along the highways. The Scottsdale Police Department tried to manage the wasted, offering free Breathalyzer tests at the exit in 2016. Nine thousand fans – roughly 1.5 percent of attendees that week – took the test. Four thousand of them were over the limit.

“I can see why some guys who’ve been out here for a long time find it off-putting. It can kind of wear on you after a few years,” said Brandt Snedeker, a regular at the WMPO. “If you embrace it, it’s a lot of fun. The fans are obviously having a great time. You have to go into it with the right mindset, accepting that you’re going to get some loud, crazy people yelling at you all day.”

“Everyone loves 16. It’s the other holes. It’s 11 tee box and 14 green, where people are on their way out or whatever, had a few too many drinks, they start getting after you a little bit,” he said. “That’s when you’re like, ‘OK, come on!’ But 16 is great. You’re expecting chaos and it is chaotic. It’s when you’re not expecting chaos it’s off-putting.”