From Tiger Woods’s Ace and Boulder Removal to ‘Gangnam Style,’ Ranking the WM Phoenix Open’s Top Moments
There’s a reason Waste Management shortened its corporate name to WM.
The word “waste,” in reference to actual sewage, doesn’t seem like the ideal investment vehicle—just like when “fried” had to go after KFC realized it had become a bad word in a more health-conscious world. Also, the Waste Management Phoenix Open got tagged with the negative nickname, “The Wasted Open,” due to the proliferation of drinking among its spectators, who annually show up in record numbers.
There is no PGA Tour event wilder, more entertaining or bigger than the WM Phoenix Open. Something happens every year that goes viral, which, in today’s world, is the disturbingly low benchmark for greatness.
What’s so wild about the WM Phoenix Open? You must have a short memory, but don’t worry, The Ranking remembers a lot of infamous moments, not including Irishman Pádraig Harrington’s punting a football into the crowd, Chris DiMarco’s getting a fan ejected for yelling, “Noonan!” on his backstroke, and the bored crazies at the par-3 16th, Golf’s Loudest Hole, who research trivial facts about tour players and turn them into clever/caustic repartee.
The Ranking returns to memory lane …
10. He who smelt it, dealt it
The irony was as thick as the unpleasant aroma at the 2015 Waste Management Phoenix Open when raw sewage suddenly began backing up from the TPC Scottsdale clubhouse and fans hustled away from the stink. Some portable toilets were the issue, brand-named Crowd Pleaser. The mess was cleaned up within a few hours—it’s not called Waste Management for nothing—but come on, this public relations disaster was like the Honda Classic giving players Toyotas as courtesy cars.
9. The gang’s all here, literally
The numbers had gotten ridiculous. In 2018 tournament attendance was officially listed as 216,818 for Saturday’s third round and 719,179 for the week. Pretty specific numbers, considering the tournament has more than one entrance and no turnstiles are used. The count was based on the number of parked cars and a formula. Whether or not the number were inflated, there was no disputing that Saturday’s Phoenix Open crowd was gigantic. After taking flack about the unproven numbers for years, tournament officials quit issuing attendance figures after ’18.
8. The human torch
This guy was pretty good in the mid-70s and took apart a couple of Arizona events.
USA TODAY Network
Pardon this item from the Triassic Era. It is easy to forget just how good Johnny Miller was during the mid-1970s. He won 15 times between ’74 and ’76, including the ’76 Phoenix Open at Phoenix Country Club. Miller dropped a second-round 61 and closing 64 on the field to shoot 24 under par and win by 14 strokes over Jerry Heard.
The next week, he scarred the Tucson Open course with a 25-under-par total and won by nine. Miller may also have mentioned once or twice during his NBC announcing career that he won the ’73 U.S. Open with a final-round 63. As either Will Rogers, Walt Whitman or baseball great Dizzy Dean said (no one agrees on the attribution), “If you done it, it ain’t braggin’.”
7. Dancing with the pars
James Hahn single-handedly raised golf viewers’ pop culture IQs in the final round of the 2013 Phoenix Open when he holed a lengthy birdie putt at the 16th green and, suddenly possessed, reenacted a “Gangnam Style” dance as the crowd roared. “Gangnam Style” came from a pop video by Psy, a South Korean rapper. The moves by Hahn, an American who was born in South Korea, went viral. Hahn is still remembered for those moves. The next best thing he’s remembered for is, um …
6. One of a kind
Australian Jarrod Lyle aced the famed par-3 16th hole in 2011. What made this ace different was it was the first of Lyle’s professional career, and he’d made a stirring comeback from leukemia as a teen to make it to the PGA Tour. A little more than a year after the ace, which Lyle celebrated with unbridled joy, he was diagnosed with a recurrence of the leukemia. He returned to competitive golf late in ’13 after treatment, but in ’17 the leukemia returned again. He opted to quit taking treatment a year later and died in August ’18, two weeks before his 37th birthday. Lyle’s joy in that ace is worth remembering, just like he is.
5. The end of dry eyes in the desert
During Wednesday’s practice round in 2019, Gary Woodland was joined on the 16th tee by Amy Bockerstette, a college player with Down syndrome. Bockerstette hit her tee shot into the greenside bunker and marveled at the thousands of fans cheering her name as she walked to the green. She wanted to finish the hole, splashed a bunker shot out to about eight feet, and, when Woodland asked whether she needed help reading the putt, replied, “I got this.” Bockerstette rolled in the putt, the crowd absolutely roared, and Woodland (all right, everyone) had trouble fighting back tears. It was a viral, inspiring moment.
4. The fan who only shot off his mouth
The Phoenix Open and its raucous crowds, often fueled by readily available adult beverages, have had their share of spectator incidents. None was more disturbing than when a fan loudly heckled Tiger Woods during the 1999 Phoenix Open’s final round. The fan used abusive language against Woods near a tee box and became belligerent when a security officer following Woods’s group ordered him to pipe down. The officer approached; the fan lunged at him and was arrested. It was only after the arrest that a handgun was found in the fan’s backpack. Woods didn’t find out that the vocal fan was packing a gun until after the round. In an unrelated item, Tiger returned to the Phoenix Open in 2001 but skipped the event for the next 14 years.
3. Mind if I play through?
What is believed to be the only hole-in-one on a par 4 in PGA Tour history happened in the 2001 Phoenix Open. And it is an ace unlike any other. Andrew Magee didn’t think he could reach the 332-yard 17th hole, so he went ahead and hit while the group ahead was still putting. Ooops. His ball ran onto the green, caromed off Tom Byrum’s putter—after it just missed hitting Steve Pate—and went into the cup. If you’re scoring at home, Byrum gets an assist.
2. The most famous boulder not in an Indiana Jones movie
At the 1999 Phoenix Open, a boulder became a “loose impediment” after Tiger Woods hit a shot into the desert that rolled up behind a boulder. A group of fans rolled it out of Tiger’s way after a tour rules official gave his approval. So when is a boulder considered a loose impediment? Anytime you have enough bodies to move it for you. It’s a rule; you can look it up.
1. A walk on the wild side
It was 1997. The Ranking crew was interviewing Nick Price by the clubhouse when a roar arose from the desert during the third round. “That’s a hole-in-one!” Price said. When the roar ceased to stop, he realized, “That’s Tiger!” We scurried down a ramp to the bag room turned media center to see the replay, and, yep, that’s exactly what it was. Fans could still sit immediately behind the tee then, before the hole was encircled by grandstands, and you know the scene—beer cups, litter, anything that could be tossed flew in the air like confetti as Tiger fist-pumped his enthusiasm. Trivia note: He was playing with Omar Uresti. (In case you’re ever on Celebrity Jeopardy! and the question arises.)