PGA.com touts tomorrow’s Phoenix FBR Open as “The Party’s On.” This tour stop, more than any other, is an event unto itself. The raucous crowds sure know how to throw a party, and they do so all across the TPC of Scottsdale’s 18 holes.
The party’s hot spot is undeniably the 162-yard par-3 16th, a bowl-shaped hole in typical stadium course style. 7,000 noisy (and quite often drunk) fans gather round, jeering and booing golfers who don’t go at the pin and hollering for the ones who do.
Fans sing college fight songs, “Happy Birthday,” and “O, Canada” for Mike Weir. They shower the tee with hundreds of beer cups, as Tiger Woods found out at the 1997 event. Tiger hasn’t been back since 2001 when an orange thrown by a fan narrowly missed his head as he putted on the ninth. In 1999, a heckler was removed and later found to be carrying a loaded pistol in his fanny pack.
Said Woods of the atmosphere at the Phoenix FBR Open, “People come out here not to watch golf. The majority come out here to have a good time.” The Phoenix FBR Open now spends more money on security than any other PGA Tour event.
The event has a fairly storied past beyond the guns and oranges, and a nice list of winners. Vijay Singh captured this tournament in 1995 and 2003, Tom Lehman won it in 2000, and Phil Mickelson won it in 1996. Johnny Miller is the last player to this event back-to-back, doing so in 1974-75. Last year’s winner, Jonathan Kaye, was quite a popular one for the locals. Kaye, a Phoenix resident, held off Chris DiMarco, Singh, and Mickelson for his second tour victory.
The Golf Channel notes that Chris DiMarco’s last victory, his third on the PGA Tour, was the 2002 Phoenix FBR Open . It’s amazing what he’s accomplished – or not accomplished – since then.
The TPC at Scottsdale, a par-71 layout measuring 7,216 yards, will host the event for the 19th consecutive year.
TV times are as follows:
Thu (2/3) 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET USA Fri (2/4) 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET USA Sat (2/5) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET CBS Sun (2/6) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET CBS
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