The Waste Administration Open has at all times been rowdy — however in 2024 it crossed the road into uncharted territory.
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The previous 12 months had all of it — loopy profitable streaks, new main champs, a major-week arrest (!) and extra. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are trying again on the most memorable moments from 2024.
How the WM Phoenix Open went off the rails in 2024
Nick Taylor gained the 2024 WM Phoenix Open in thrilling vogue, besting Charley Hoffman in a playoff to assert his fourth Tour title. Most years within the desert, a journeyman’s win in additional time could be a heartwarming story that put a punctuation mark on a profitable week. Nonetheless, 2024 was something however an unusual yr at TPC Scottsdale.
The 2024 WM Phoenix Open will go down in infamy — and virtually solely for what occurred exterior the ropes.
The annual early-season Tour cease in Scottsdale, Ariz. has lengthy been often called the largest social gathering in golf. With loads of boozed-up followers and monstrous stadium builds — headlined by the stands surrounding the sixteenth gap — the Phoenix Open is not like every other match in golf.
This repute — whereas rowdy — has largely not triggered any main points within the match’s almost century-long historical past. Certain, there have been minor heckling incidents and the occasional over-served patron, however for essentially the most half, the enjoyable has been comparatively innocent.
That each one modified in 2024.
Because the match has grown in reputation over time, the id of the occasion has shifted. What was once a golf match performed in a party-like environment has changed into a rager with a golf match connected. Should you arrived at TPC Scottsdale simply to look at some golf this previous February, you have been within the minority.
The 2024 Wm Phoenix Open truly began considerably tame. Thursday and Friday featured crummy climate (by Scottsdale requirements) and it helped maintain the crowds considerably subdued. When play was suspended on Friday night, there was optimism the weekend would go off and not using a hitch. The weekend, nonetheless, shortly changed into an unmitigated catastrophe.
The gates opened early on Saturday morning, and the followers shortly set to work pounding drinks. It didn’t take lengthy earlier than issues obtained rowdy.
Social media exploded with movies of followers stumbling down the soggy hills. Grown males have been photographed handed out underneath timber and the heckling of golfers from exterior the ropes grew to become increasingly widespread.
GOLF’s Claire Rogers was on the bottom and had this to say about what she noticed:
“I noticed extra chaos within the final eight hours than I’ve cumulatively within the final decade of my life. I noticed males bleeding from the face, individuals napping on muddy hills and adults knocking one another over as a result of they couldn’t stroll straight. Image the primary couple of minutes of making an attempt to exit a sold-out live performance and multiply it by 15. That’s the place we have been at.”
One viral clip confirmed two-time main winner Zach Johnson confronting a gaggle of followers after the heckling grew to become an excessive amount of to bear. He later advised a reporter he wasn’t certain he’d ever return to the occasion.
“In some unspecified time in the future — I don’t know what the road is, however you may have individuals falling out of the rafters, you may have fights within the stands. It’s to the purpose the place now, how do you reel it in? As a result of it’s taken on a lifetime of its personal,” Johnson mentioned. “I feel the Thunderbirds in all probability must do one thing about it. I’m assuming they’re ashamed. As a result of in some unspecified time in the future, any person’s both gonna actually, actually get damage or worse.”
The sixteenth gap, lengthy often called the rowdiest gap on Tour, featured loads of shenanigans as effectively, with one fan injured falling from the grandstands whereas one other stormed the inexperienced and dove right into a bunker. Extreme crowding in numerous bottlenecks across the course prompted officers to chop by means of fences as crowd security grew to become a priority.
“I positively began to really feel like I used to be caught in an overcrowded fraternity basement by mid-afternoon,” Rogers reported. “I spoke with a member of the safety crew, and there was actual concern that folks would get significantly injured, particularly as a result of so many spectators have been getting caught within the crowds.”
By mid-afternoon, match officers took two drastic measures to mitigate the chaos. First, they closed the gates to any followers making an attempt to enter the occasion. And second, they quickly suspended the sale of alcohol.
Event officers launched a press release addressing the chaos the next day:
“As a company, our followers and their security is our prime precedence. As a consequence of regular rainfall in Scottsdale this week that created deteriorating course situations, we sadly needed to shut the gates on the match entrance and cease permitting followers to enter the golf course on Saturday afternoon. The stadium-style course structure at TPC Scottsdale which options giant banks for crowds to face and sit, have been soggy and unusable. This pushed patrons who would usually congregate in these areas into high-foot-traffic areas inflicting extreme congestion at key factors on occasion grounds together with the doorway and exit. After consulting with occasion companions and officers, we made the choice to quickly shut the match entrance to alleviate crowding in these areas within the curiosity of public security. We all know that followers with Saturday tickets have been turned away. The Thunderbirds as a company are gathering extra particulars and discussing choices on easy methods to treatment their issues. To the best followers in golf, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this will likely have triggered as we at all times try to create the perfect occasion doable.”
The Thunderbirds have been true to their phrase within the weeks to come back as they outlined quite a lot of adjustments to their working procedures for the years forward. Nonetheless, the harm to the match’s repute is certain to be long-lasting.
“From the movies that I’ve seen, these cases are unlucky, however I don’t assume it’s a standalone, it’s been like that for a bit,” Taylor mentioned. “However I feel the cat’s in all probability out of the bag.”
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Zephyr Melton
Golf.com Editor
Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com the place he spends his days running a blog, producing and enhancing. Previous to becoming a member of the crew at GOLF, he attended the College of Texas adopted by stops with the Texas Golf Affiliation, Staff USA, the Inexperienced Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all issues instruction and covers newbie and girls’s golf. He may be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.
