“On 16 last year when Justin Thomas chipped in, I didn’t want to see the water bottle coming straight for my head from the third storey, but I did see it, so hopefully those are things they rein back on and keep it strictly about the game. Those are things people don’t want to deal with on a regular basis. It’s one week a year, so I think a lot of us welcome it for one week…”
It’s safe to say that the 16th at TPC Scottsdale is like nothing else in the game. Jon Rahm was Thomas’ playing partner last year and, being a Scottsdale resident and Arizona State alum, the Spaniard loves the week. This year, with the WM Phoenix Open now becoming the PGA Tour’s first full field ‘designated event’, it means his fellow superstars will have to at least tolerate it.
“I don’t think it’s everybody’s favourite. I think either you love it or hate it. There’s no in between. With my case, I love it. I want to come every year. It ranks highly in my list but I know a few people that put it far down their list.”
Part of that might be the nature of the desert golf, part of it might be that it’s Riviera next week and a large chunk of it will be that there will be up to 20,000 punters inside ‘The Coliseum’ 16th hole. Without even beginning to exaggerate the case there really is nothing like the par 3 where players will be roundly booed for hitting their shots to 15 feet, play shots in their favourite football or college shirts, chuck out goodies to the swathes of fans and take whatever the fans throw at them – which, in the case of last year, were showers of aluminium beer cans. Or, as Rahm points out, the odd water.
Last year Harry Higgs rolled in a 10-foot par putt – the ordinary nature of the regulation par making what then followed even more amusing – as playing partner Joel Dahmen then went topless. Over the week Carlos Ortiz and Sam Ryder made holes-in-one which sparked further bedlam. Brian Harman had to wait 10 minutes to hit his tee shot after Ryder’s ace, others saw their putts bobble due to the outpouring of emotion and Bud Light onto the putting surface.
At the end of the week, Scottie Scheffler outlasted Patrick Cantlay in a three-hole play-off which didn’t go anywhere near the 16th.
This year, with 18 of the world’s best 20 players in the field, we’ll see alcoholic beverages served in free, commemorative plastic cups. There will be a larger police presence and warnings that anyone throwing things onto the green will not be…
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