November 10, 2024

Erichoffer

Savvy business masters

Very different Waste Management Phoenix Open on tap this week

Jan 7, 2021; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; The 16th hole at the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale, the site of the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-Arizona Republic

The “Greenest Show on Grass” is also the “Rowdiest Outdoor Party Where Sometimes Fans Actually Stop To Watch Golf.”

Officially, it’s the Waste Management Phoenix Open and it’s back this week, although in a decidedly toned-down form.

Always the most highly attended PGA Tour event of the season, there are typically an estimated 200,000 fans who pass through the turnstiles just for Saturday’s third round, always the busiest day of the party, er, tournament. The crowds usually swell well north of 700,000 for the entire week.

But the world ain’t what it used to be and that goes for the Phoenix Open.

“It’s going to feel like nothing,” said Jon Rahm ahead of the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego last week. Rahm is always a crowd favorite at TPC Scottsdale because he went to nearby Arizona State.