PHOENIX — Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, hosted a 2025 WM Phoenix Open luncheon Wednesday. The guest speaker was Nick Saban, who played in the pro-am ahead of the 2024 tournament back in February.
TPC Scottsdale made such an impression on the seven-time national championship coach that he walked out of the merch tent with “two arms full of Phoenix Open gear that he was taking to his kids and grandkids,” according to 2025 tournament director Matt Mooney.
The 50,000-square-foot merchandise venue will be back once again in 2025 as will many other staples of this tournament. The arena around the 16th hole will be rocking and fans will flock from all over to be seen at the Greenest Show on Grass.
But after last season, with an event marred by heavy rain, slippery/muddy grass, an increase in arrests and unruly behavior towards players, some significant changes are coming.
“We always talk about bigger and better,” Mooney said.
And now? “We’ve just said ‘not bigger, just better’ this year.”
‘Outlier individuals who want to have their viral moment’
Social media captured many of the issues from the 2024 event that left a negative impression. Two in particular became viral moments involving Zach Johnson and Billy Horschel. In each, fans armed with cell phones captured the two golfers reacting after provoking them during the course of play.
“We did have conversations with those guys, and frankly a lot of 1-on-1 conversations with many of the players individually,” Mooney said. He and Thunderbirds executive director Chance Cosby “were on a plane to Riviera 36 hours after the tournament ended last year” to meet with players at the Genesis Invitational.
“It’s one of the things that concerns me the most as an avid golfer is that you have these outlier individuals who want to have their viral moment and so we’re also really making an emphasis this year again on our fan code of conduct. Our general admission fans will have to click on a code of conduct acknowledgment and we’re going to have a zero-tolerance policy for people that cross those procedures. Unfortunately, there’s a small segment of our society that wants to create these viral moments and it’s to the detriment of the event, the detriment of the other fans and most importantly the athletes themselves.
“We always have a heavy PD [police department] presence, they’re going to be very visible this year, and if fans cross that line they will get…
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