Postcard from Phoenix: A Day Inside Sport’s Party Vortex

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The wind whipped like a mixer working overtime on a margarita Thursday morning, and the more than 17,000 people who puffed their way through the 16th hole at the Phoenix Open pretended it was the last call.

For graveyard tranquility, kneel politely to the golf gods at the Masters’ Amen Corner.

This is the People’s Open, and the 16th hole is the loudest hole on the roughest stop on the PGA Tour. Jon Rahm, a US Open champion, says the decibels have increased exponentially every year.

“Very few sporting events in the world can easily happen in the same week as the Super Bowl and still have the impact they have like this one,” Rahm said. “Even so, I don’t think it’s everyone’s favorite – I think you either love it or hate it. There is nothing in between. With my case I love it.”

The tournament is an annual destination for fans who refuse to bow to stuffy golf etiquette, and for that reason the fairways of the TPC Scottsdale course are lined with younger and louder participants than anywhere else in golf. Having the Super Bowl in town not only boosted golf’s party capital, but also helped the 91-year-old tournament sell out its second- and third-round tickets for the first time.

Nate Orr, a lawyer, traveled from Kansas City with his friends Jared Kenealy and Micheal Lawrence. They are season ticket holders for the Chiefs, who jumped up for the Super Bowl on Sunday but found themselves in a box on the edge of the 16th green, watching as golf balls bounced off the plates below and sifted into sand traps.

“Bucket list stuff,” said Lawrence, an executive at a nonprofit.

World No. 13 Tony Finau was greeted like a gladiator at the so-called coliseum hole after teeing off 16 inches from the pin. As he pocketed the gimme for a birdie, the crowd roared just as boisterously as it did at Arrowhead Stadium last month when Harrison Butker scored the game-winning field goal that landed Kansas City in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Rory McIlroy was booed for just pushing his ball back in gusts of wind.

However, when Jordan Spieth, in 17th place, ripped his roughly five-foot birdie putt, the boos reached a crescendo. How to describe the enthusiasm of the crowd? Imagine Eagles fans hailing Chip Kelly’s return. It was that poisonous.

Chants of “Go Chiefs” and “Fly Eagles Fly” were part of the tournament’s already booming soundtrack as football fans found themselves among the long lines of people waiting to secure a seat in the Coliseum’s bleachers.

The celebrities who competed in the Pro-Am on Wednesday were just as rough. Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps, retired Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and former United States Women’s Soccer star Carli Lloyd were announced to DJ music at the tee box, but were crushed and yelled at as they performed way into the green.

Name another hole that had foam raining and beer cans thundering, like last year when Sam Ryder won that hole with an ace in the third round last year to set off a frenzied celebration that stopped play for 15 minutes with it Volunteers who could pick up cans.

Unfortunately, aluminum cans were banned in the Colosseum this week and replaced with plastic cups.

Where else are gallery members enlisted to remove a boulder like they did in 1999 so Tiger Woods can get a clear shot of the green. It took a dozen of them and a rules official’s blessing, but after a few heave-hos, Woods got his birdie.

Enclosed from tee to green by a grandstand that reaches three stories, an army of aggressive and savvy beer vendors helped bribe the crowd on Thursday.

“I’ve got a Coors with your name on it – what’s your name?” went his singsong mantra.

Unlike the golfers they wanted to watch, people’s open spectators don’t even have to go through all 18 holes. The Birds Nest, a marquee near the course’s entrance, begins to throb in the late afternoon as tournament-goers prepare to dance the night away to performances by Machine Gun Kelly and the Chainsmokers.

Yes, the Phoenix Open has its charms. Ask McIlroy.

“If I wasn’t a player and I wanted to come to a PGA Tour event,” he said after shooting 2-overs in his opening round, “that would probably be where I want to come to.”