The 2022 Waste Management Phoenix Open is Setting the Stage on Modernizing the Way Golf is Attended

PHOENIX -- Watching your favorite golfer while being pushed up to the rope trying to get the best angle for a video is all part of the charm attending the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Walking past empty beer cans on the fastest possible route to see the golfer make their last putt is just an added bonus.

The 2022 WM Phoenix Open sparked questions that the raucous crowd atmosphere might be getting out of hand, but with golf needing to appeal to younger generations, the Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour doesn’t look to make any changes.

The Open’s atmosphere often turns party-like, with concert highlights on the golf course and fans throwing beer cans onto the green when two holes-in-one occurred. This gets people watching golf and brings attention to the sport labeled as boring or outdated.

PGA Tour players find themselves being drawn to play this tournament for the energy it brings. The second ranked golfer in the world, Jon Rahm, told Phoenix Magazine there’s nothing else on the schedule like it.

“One of the reasons why you play here is the atmosphere. I love it. I wish every single week was like that,” Jon Rahm, the second ranked player in the world, commented for Phoenix Magazine. “It’s the closest thing we’re going to feel to be playing basically on a football stadium on Saturday when you have 100,000 people here just having fun.”

The PGA Tour has accepted the WM Phoenix Open as its foundation for modernizing the way golf is attended. There are concerts with top performing artists such as Kygo and Sam Hunt, beer sold on every few holes, and patron costumes more befitting a music festival than a golf tournament. Yet the PGA tour continues to embrace the madness for social media attention and popularity.

“I was there when the guy had the hole-in-one on Saturday, and you would think the PGA Tour would be mad, but they retweeted out that video,” Ian Schwartz, meteorologist for Channel 3 AZ Family, said about videos posted of the beer cans flying onto the green and angles from spectator cameras.

Because of this environment, the tournament is bringing a new crowd into the sport, one that isn’t familiar with all aspects of the game, but they come to the tournament expecting a party. The tournament markets itself as more than just a golf tournament. Now known as “The People’s Open” the tournament must live up to the label.

Bringing in a new crowd to the sport is good, but it has drawbacks. It doesn’t take much for 20,000 fans on one hole to distract a golfer’s performance and mentality. For those that are used to the crowds, they love the extra attention, but for the golfers fighting for their tour card every week, the atmosphere may become too much.

Patrick Cantlay, the fifth ranked golfer in the world, experienced the effect of the fans on hole 16 when he had a putt to tie the lead. The PGA says Hole 16 is known as the loudest hole in golf, and can fit nearly 20,000 spectators. Prior to Cantlay’s group arriving at the hole, another player hit a hole-in-one. Fans threw beer cans onto the green in celebration, leaving the green with dents. When Cantlay hit the putt, his ball bit a bump said to be caused by one of those cans, knocking it off line and missing the hole.

On the mentality side, fans yell nonsense when players are in the middle of their swing or try to get into the player’s head when they’re competing to win.

Mia Guevara, a golfer from Arizona Christian University said how she would want the crowd to be during an important moment.

“If I’m on 18 green compared to hole 12 and I need to make this par putt, then the crowd better be silent,” Guevara said.

The football-like atmosphere also affects those who look up to the professionals. Junior golfers, especially those in Arizona, come to watch this tournament so they can see their favorite golfer up close. It becomes hard for these young golfers to watch the game when they can’t see it in the first place. Golf wants to grow its audience, but that task becomes difficult when those who love the game for what it is, can’t enjoy the tournament.

Lexi Sobieski, the tournament coordinator and director for the Junior Golf Association of Arizona, said this atmosphere isn’t something the PGA should be promoting to children. “I believe it’s a bad distraction looking up as a junior coordinator; it’s not something you want to promote to kids.”

While there are some who go to the event to party, there are also longtime fans of the sport that go there because they love the game for what has always been as Mia Guevara puts it. This golf tournament is special to numerous people and while rough patches occur during the week, many walk away with memories of a lifetime.

These experiences include how someone made a hole-in-one on the loudest hole in golf and witnessed a moment that won’t be recreated anywhere else or how a young junior got a high-five from the tour pro they want to be like when they grow up.

“The PGA Tour has embraced this tournament,” Schwartz laughed after asked if the crowd ever gets too rowdy. “At the end of the day, people are still there watching golf.”