The WM Phoenix Open has found its way onto the bucket lists of many golf fans around the world.
The crowds. The noise. The beer.
And, oh yes, the golf at TPC Scottsdale.
It’s like nothing else in professional golf, and it revels in its wide-open approach, having redefined what the tournament experience can be for fans.
It is also intent on redefining itself.
To the event’s credit, shortly after the revelry reached the tipping point last Saturday, the tournament and its leadership determined changes will be made in the aftermath of what happened there when some fans had too much fun, forcing spectator gates to close for a time and alcohol sales to be stopped.
Without citing specifics yet, tournament officials intend to make adjustments for the 2025 event with the intention of reducing the potential rowdiness in the future.
“We’re going to make changes,” Chance Cozby, executive director of the Thunderbirds, the civic organization which runs the event, told Golf Channel last week.
A day after Nick Taylor’s dramatic playoff victory over Charley Hoffman, Cozby traveled to Los Angeles where he met with members of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council to assure them that what transpired this year won’t happen in the future.
Talking directly with players became a priority for Cozby.
Social media was littered with videos and images of fans who were out of control. By the time officials closed spectator gates and halted the sale of alcohol, the bad behavior had threatened to disrupt the tournament.
A combination of factors created the issues that turned Saturday in the desert into a crowd-control challenge. With some estimates pegging the attendance at more than 200,000 – the WMPO has not released numbers since 2018, when a record 216,818 attended the third round – some spectator areas were unable to be used because of rain that made those areas unsafe.
That pushed more spectators into other areas and, with alcohol sales going strong, what was a good time for most turned into a mess created by a relative few.
Social media was littered with videos and images of fans who were out of control. By the time officials closed spectator gates and halted the sale of alcohol, the bad behavior had threatened to disrupt the tournament.
PGA Tour players Billy Horschel and Zach Johnson were caught on video responding angrily to fans during the competition.
In the aftermath of the event, the Scottsdale Police Department reported that it had made 54 arrests compared with 36 in 2023 and zero in 2022. It also ejected 211 spectators, more than double the number in each of the two previous years.
The WM Phoenix Open isn’t going to change its stripes – much of its success is based on the festive atmosphere that has been created over the years – but minimizing the bad behavior is another matter.
“There’s no time off. We’ve got 365 days to fix this,” Cozby told Golf Channel. “I think that you will see a complete operational change of how we manage really our Friday and Saturday, but the entire week.
“The players don’t like what happened on Saturday. Our fans don’t like what happened on Saturday. And so, nothing is off the table. You know, we’re going to look at our just general-admission ticket exposure and how many are out in the marketplace. We’re going to look at our complete security plan and just how we operate.
“Saturday at the WM Phoenix Open in 2024 is going to end up being a turning point for our tournament and our organization to make our event better.”
It’s an event that many players embrace because it stands apart from other weeks on tour. Other players intentionally stay away because they don’t want to deal with the noise.
“I think it’s a week where the classic line is that I can do this for one week but multiple weeks, probably not,” Taylor said.
“It’s a shame when only a very small percentage of fans are like that; it gets exposed a bit. But the majority of the fans are great. They’re just trying to watch some good golf and cheer.
“I think this year, again with the weather, everybody kind of getting in the same area waiting around, it was probably a perfect storm to cause some of that a little more, but I’m not sure how they would reel it back, to be honest.”
General-admission sales may be cut in half, with ticket prices doubling, to reduce the number of people who turn up solely for the party and not for the golf.
According to a source within the tournament organization who spoke on condition of anonymity, no specific decisions have been made regarding the changes, but several options are under consideration.
One scenario would change how general-admission tickets are sold. The majority of tournament revenue is raised through hospitality sales tied to designated viewing venues, and those were not where the problems developed.
General-admission sales may be cut in half, with ticket prices doubling, to reduce the number of people who turn up solely for the party and not for the golf. There also may be identification requirements to prevent the general-admission tickets from being transferred.
The crowd swelled on Saturday because more fans with “any day” passes showed up because rainy weather kept them away on Thursday and Friday.
Organizers understandably want to protect what has made the WM Phoenix Open one of the standout events on tour, and much of that is built around the enormous crowds that support the tournament.
Those numbers allowed the event to donate $14.5 million to local charities in 2023 and more than $120 million since 2010.