Waste-d Management Open

Home to the loudest hole in golf

February 14, 2023

“❤️ Happy Valentine's Day to our true love, golf” - Mulligan Report

News Slice

  • 💰 Purse: $20M

  • 🏆 Winner: Scottie Scheffler 🇺🇸 | $3.6M prize

  • 📍 Location: TPC Scottsdale - Stadium Course, Scottsdale, Arizona

The sports gods blessed us with another weekend of entertainment this past weekend, with both the 🍺 ♻️ Waste Management Open and 🏈 Super Bowl LVII concluding on Sunday. Right off the bat, congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs for winning Super Bowl LVII. Also, a big congratulations to Patrick Mahomes for winning the Super Bowl MVP. The game was full of entertainment from start to finish and we can’t wait for football to start up again in the fall.

If you are not familiar with the Waste Management Open, it is held each year in early February at the TPC Scottsdale – Stadium Course. A couple of fun facts about this tournament:

  • ⛳ The “Open” was founded in 1932 as the Arizona Open and then shortly after changed its name to the Phoenix Open in 1955. It’s the 5th oldest tournament on the PGA Tour.

  • 🌵 The tournament moved in 1987 to its current home, the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale

  • 🗑 It had been previously title-sponsored by the brokerage firm FBR and has been affiliated with Waste Management since 2010. The current sponsorship deal with the trash giant expires in 2025.

  • 🎟 It is the best-attended golf tournament in the world with more than 700,000 ticketed fans in attendance. Simply wow.

  • 😊 In 2021, the WM Open raised more than $3.8M for charity and has raised more than $164M for charities in its 85-year history.

  • ♻️ The WM Open also won the PGA TOUR’s “Best Title Sponsor Integration Award” for diverting 100% of tournament waste from landfills. Zero waste means nothing from the tournament went to landfills in 3 years – not a single cup, can, sign or container. Heck yeah.

There aren’t many tournaments that have the reputation that the WM Open has, in particular its party-like atmosphere. That is thanks in part to the signature par-3, 16th hole known as the “Coliseum”. Otherwise known as the “loudest hole in golf“, it gives off those Kentucky Derby 🏇 and College Game Day 🏈 vibes when watching it on TV. It has large multi-level stand seating and allows fans to get away from golf’s quiet etiquette standard that most are accustomed to.

Simply put the 16th hole is a different animal, with fans getting as loud as they please during a golfer’s back swing and giving you crap when your ball doesn’t stay on the green ⛳. It truly electric and probably was at an all-time high in 2023 with the Super Bowl being only 32 miles down the road in Glendale. If you were fortunate enough to plan your vacation in the area for these events, then I envy you. Let’s hope the party was worth the hangover on the flight home 🍻 ✈️ 

Aside from the drinking and hollering, there was actual golf played on the other 17 holes. Scottie Scheffler won the WM Open for the second year in a row 🏆. The victory on Sunday made it his 5th overall on the PGA Tour and ascended him to number 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings 🌎, pushing out Rory McIlroy for the top spot. Scheffler was ranked number 2 in the World prior to the win. And it wasn’t an easy feat, as there was plenty of star power to compete against with players such as Rahm, McIlroy, Schauffele, Spieth, and more. Scheffler closed with a 6-under 65 to beat Nick Taylor 🇨🇦 by two strokes in windy conditions. Scheffler came out hot with two birdies 🐦 in the first three holes. He was tied with Taylor until the par-5, 13th hole when he made a clutch Eagle 🦅 to break the tie.  He then took a 2 shot lead on the par-3, 16th when he sunk a brilliant 15-footer for par after his tee shot went left on the stadium hole. 

At one moment it seemed as if Taylor could get within one stroke before Scheffler made the putt, but the par saving stroke by Scottie was probably as big as any other putt he made that day. After he made it, he gave the belligerent crowd a couple of fist pumps with high emotion, something he normally doesn’t show. Taylor would go on to miss his par putt and finished solo in second place.

Scheffler will look to repeat his success in the Genesis Invitational starting this Thursday in Los Angeles. Someone else will also be making their first start of the year and he usually wears red on Sundays 🐅… stay tuned 😉

Swing for the Fences

Thinning sucks and we’re not talking about male pattern baldness, although that’s no fun either. Picture this… you’re just outside the green and getting ready to chip it on. You thin it and the ball sails over across the green and off to the other side 👎

Here’s how to get that chip shot closer to the hole …...⚪️        🕳️ 

  1. Danny Maude: How to Hit Chip Shot Around the Green - Easy Technique - https://youtu.be/6VVOJLUufe0

  2. MrShortGame Golf: The Easiest Golf Chipping Method for High Chip Shots - https://youtu.be/7pziu21ljwg 

Course of the Day

🏜 TPC Scottsdale - Scottsdale, Arizona, US

Let’s keep it right here and talk about the course that a record number of fans flood to each year, TPC Scottsdale ⛳. The courses at TPC Scottsdale are considered “Tournament Players Club” courses, which is a chain of public and private golf courses operated by the PGA Tour. Each TPC golf course has either hosted or been designed to host PGA Tour tournaments, and to do so, each property was designed by the most elite golf architects 📐

TPC Scottsdale has 2 courses, the first being the Stadium course where the WM Open is played, and the other being the Champions course. It was the 6th club in the TPC Network and was created thanks to then PGA Commissioner Deane Beman. The Phoenix Open had previously been played at the Phoenix Country Club, but his vision combined with that of the Phoenix Thunderbirds☀️ – the host organization for the Open – wanted the event to grow into something even bigger. Due to the limited size of the Phoenix Country Club, they needed to look elsewhere to make that dream a reality. In the beginning of 1986 and with the help from the City of Scottsdale, construction was started and the PGA tour event was moved to what we now know as the TPC Scottsdale.

Other than the week it is hosting the “Greatest Show on Grass”, the course is open to the public on the other 51 weeks of the year. There are a variety of different golf packages that you can purchase, but if you are looking to simply just book a tee time the cost for a round will run you anywhere from $329 to $525 💸 depending on the season. The peak season in Arizona depends on who you ask, but because of the heat during the summer months some say the peak season will be anywhere from November through April (opposite of us Mid-Westerners ❄️). The Champions course can also be played for as low as $125 in February of this year, which is quite reasonable if you want to get that ideal desert 🏜 golf experience.

Go ahead and add this to your bucket list of courses to play. That way you can tell your friends that you played the loudest hole in golf, even if there are no stadium stands or streakers running on the green 🏃‍♂️

19th Hole

🎮 Pick up those sticks…

If you’re not doing so hot on the course IRL and want to switch to the virtual links then we got some good news for you 👇

EA Sports is releasing its first golf video game since Rory McIlroy PGA Tour in 2015! This year’s edition will not feature a big name golfer on the cover and will be named “EA Sports PGA TOUR”.

Price & Availability:

  1. 🗓️ 03/24/23 release date

  2. 🎮 PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S & PC

  3. 💵 $69.99 Standard Edition, $84.99 Deluxe Edition and $99.99/yr, EA Play Pro Edition

Features:

  1. ⛳️ 30 Courses including places like Augusta National, Pebble Beach & St Andrews

  2. Exclusive rights to all four majors: Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship, U.S. Open Championship, and The Open Championship.

  3. Career Mode - Road to the Masters

  4. LGPA Championships

  5. Improved Technology for life-like courses, accurate player skills

  6. Play as or against Scottie Scheffler, Nelly Korda, Tony Finau, Jordan Spieth, Danielle Kang, Patrick Cantlay and Lexi Thompson. EA said more will be announced later, and some will be released post-launch.

🐅 Tiger, Tiger Woods … nope

Tiger Woods is no longer part of the EA family after their partnership ended in 2014. Pick up PGA TOUR 2K23 if you want to play as Tiger.

🕹️ Prefer the arcade?

Arcade1Up has Golden Tee 3D available if your prefer the the feel of an old school arcade game. These things are light weight versions of classic arcade games and are pretty damn sweet!