Waste(d) Management Phoenix Open- Phil Gets Booed, Bubba and Crane Sing During the Round…and Somehow It All Just Seemed to Fit Right In

As we’ve witnessed over the past few years, the Waste(d) Management Phoenix Open has become far more than just a golf tournament. The annual Florida vs Georgia college football game used to be known as the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party, but the label was supposedly removed for “sensory” reasons. Perhaps more fittingly it was removed because it isn’t the world’s largest anymore, or at least isn’t as large as the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Yes, a professional golf tournament has become one of the world’s largest outdoor parties. As Kevin Streelman says in those Wilson Staff commercials- Seriously.

Yesterday’s attendance at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was announced at a record 173,210 people………………..for the day. To throw out a cliché (as Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman can’t seem to stop herself from doing), that’s over double how many people will attend today’s Super Bowl. Let’s look at the bigger, more full-encompassing picture here. By the end of the final round today, attendance will have shattered the 600,000 mark for the week, meaning that the entire city of Omaha, Nebraska could’ve flown to Phoenix and attended the tournament, and it wouldn’t have even doubled the size. Seriously, how’s that for perspective.

Let’s set up how crazy this has “golf tournament” has gotten. Bubba Watson and Ben Crane sang their Golf Boys song into a microphone after their tee shots on the 16th hole yesterday. Let’s repeat that for effect- 2 professional golfers sang/rapped a song to a wild crowd after hitting their tee shots during the 3rd round of a PGA Tour event. Wonder what Ben Hogan would’ve thought about this had he still been around to see it.

Possibly even crazier than the singing- Phil Mickelson, Scottsdale’s and ASU’s favorite son, was booed on the 16th hole yesterday for, get this- hitting it 30 feet left of the pin. Yes ladies and gentlemen, he hit the green but wasn’t close enough to the pin so the fans booed him (see video below of Phil getting booed). Somehow it just seemed to fit right in to what has become the norm for this event.

Also, Rickie Fowler ran down the edge of the hole by the bleachers and chucked Puma hats up into the crowd. He’s lucky he didn’t get a beverage or two dumped all over him. Again, this is a professional golf event, or so it says on the PGA Tour season schedule.

It’s becoming one of those impossible-not-love events in not just golf, but all of sports, and one where nothing seems to be out of the norm anymore. Hey, it’s more attention to our great sport, we’ll take it.

Joel Harrington