Change coming to WM Phoenix Open after mayhem, safety concerns

The rowdiest get together in golf is probably going to be rather less rowdy subsequent 12 months.

Just days after the WM Phoenix Open had to shut the gates to ticket-holders due to overcrowding and safety concerns, the event’s organizer mentioned the Tour’s hottest occasion received’t make the identical mistake once more.

“We’re going to make changes,” Thunderbirds government director Chance Cozby said on Golf Channel Monday. “The fine line was really when we felt like we were just at a point on Saturday where our fans could not move around the golf course.”

Centered across the distinctive stadium on the par-3 sixteenth gap that may seat up to 17,000 spectators, the WM Phoenix Open has developed a raucous ambiance in contrast to that of some other Tour occasion. But that ambiance, coupled with a wild climate week and a probable report attendance — the event stopped releasing official attendance numbers in 2018 — led to chaos Saturday.

The conclusion of the second spherical of the event was pushed to Saturday morning due to rain Thursday and frost Friday, leaving the course a muddy mess for followers. Cozby mentioned on the NBC broadcast Saturday that the inclement climate induced the event to lose about 3,000 parking areas.

That didn’t cease hordes of followers from displaying to the occasion, which traditionally has drawn over 200,000 individuals for a single day.

On Saturday, issues obtained to the purpose the place event organizers lower fences to create more room for the crowds earlier than finally shutting the gates for a time round 2 p.m. to skinny out the gang. A safety guard informed GOLF’s Claire Rogers that there have been concerns about followers getting injured.

“At that moment, the right thing to do was to take the steps that we did,” Cozby mentioned. “The flow of people simply could not flow. And we knew that we needed to make an operational decision at that point to get people off the golf course simply for the safety of the event, the safety of the players, the safety of our fans.”

Alcohol gross sales have been additionally suspended for the remainder of the day. But that didn’t cease quite a few movies popping up on social media of followers throughout the course slipping and sliding within the mud and even brawling.

The dysfunction carried over to Sunday, too, together with some spicy player-fan interactions. Videos of Zach Johnson, Billy Horschel and Jordan Spieth all went viral.

Johnson mentioned Sunday the Thunderbirds ought to be “ashamed.”

This got here after a fan was injured on Friday after falling from the grandstands on 16.

Cozby mentioned the event management workforce met for “five or six hours” Saturday night to decide how to stop these occasions sooner or later.

“There’s no time off. We’ve got 365 days to fix this,” he mentioned. “I believe that you will notice an entire operational change of how we handle actually are Friday and Saturday. But the in the whole week.

“The gamers don’t like what occurred on Saturday. Our followers don’t like what occurred on Saturday. And so nothing is off the desk. You know, we’re going to have a look at our simply common admission ticket publicity and what number of are out within the market. We’re going to have a look at our full safety plan and simply how we function.

“Saturday at the WM Phenix Open in 2024 is going to end up being a turning point for our tournament and our organization to make our event better.”

Cozby wasn’t prepared to particularly element the adjustments coming to the occasion.

“We’ll find out,” he replied when Todd Lewis requested if extra safety was on the roadmap.

Nick Taylor beat Charley Hoffman in a playoff late Sunday afternoon to win the occasion, which is likely one of the longer-running Tour stops. The event has been run by the Thunderbirds since 1939 and has seen its standing rise up to now few years, profitable the PGA Tour’s “Tournament of the Year” award 5 occasions since 2014, Cozby famous.

But this isn’t the primary time the extremely chaotic ambiance on the Phoenix Open has drawn ire. In 2022, a hole-in-one on the stadium gap by Sam Ryder induced a large bathe of beer, drenching followers and gamers alike.

Joel Dahmen later revealed he and Harry Higgs have been reprimanded by Tour officers that very same 12 months after they each took off their shirts on the sixteenth gap.

The scene was barely tamer final 12 months because the occasion was one of many PGA Tour’s Designated occasions and featured many of the sport’s high stars, with Scottie Scheffler profitable for the second straight 12 months. The the event was changed on this 12 months’s Signature Event lineup by the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, incomes levels in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his highschool golf workforce and not too long ago returned to this system to function head coach. Jack additionally nonetheless *tries* to stay aggressive in native amateurs. Before becoming a member of GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but additionally producing, anchoring and even presenting the climate. He may be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.