The Waste Management Open DISASTER in Phoenix for the PGA Tour | OTB Clips

Trace Fowler talks about the chaos that was the Waste Management Phoenix Open over the weekend.

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Story we are following from The Arizona Republic:

A volatile mix of huge crowds, mud and alcohol at the WM Phoenix Open had fans and players talking about changes needed to keep the event safe while maintaining its unique atmosphere.

On Saturday, the tournament shut its gates in the early afternoon, leaving ticketed fans unable to gain entry. At the same time, alcohol and food sales were cut off — all in an attempt to ease crowding near the entrance. The issue, organizers believed, was that muddy conditions left much of the course unsuitable for fans, forcing them to crowd into smaller areas.

The Scottsdale Police Department also cited the unusual weather.

“The course conditions were not normal due to the mud and rain,” Allison Sempsis, the department’s public information officer, said. “This resulted in the large crowds only occupying a small portion of the course and caused large buildup of crowds.”

Sempsis also noted that, at one point, fans were being allowed in without having their tickets scanned.

“There was a large group of attendees that were stopped before going through the gate,” Sempsis said. “Attendees were waved through for a short time period in order to keep everyone safe and to create a larger space for people to move around on the course.”

Sempsis did not say whether Scottsdale police plan to make any changes to their procedures next year. Tournament chairman George Thimsen was not available for comment Sunday.

The tournament stopped announcing daily attendance figures in 2019. The last time attendance was made public, 576,807 fans watched the four days of tournament action, including over 200,000 on Saturday, which is typically the most crowded and chaotic day.

Sempsis said, “Every year after the event, SPD and other partnerships continually assess and evaluate what can be done the following year to ensure everyone attending the event is safe and has a good experience.”

As intoxicated fans reveled in the conditions Saturday, that safety came into question.

All over the course, shirtless fans found muddy hills to slide down. A shirtless fan leapt into a bunker on the 16th hole to do sand angels. Videos of fans who were unable to stand straight took hold on various social media sites.

For many tournament regulars, those events and other logistical issues tipped the scales.

One regular attendee, Todd Williams of Phoenix, has gone to the Open for 10 straight years but said the tournament would need to announce “drastic changes such as multiple new entrance points and more concessions” for him to continue attending.

“I’m all for the party and craziness,” Williams said. “The insane and rowdy crowds make the event. This year, Friday felt like a normal Saturday, and Saturday was just complete chaos. It was hard to enjoy the event when it took 30-plus minutes at any concessions and bathrooms were long waits, too.”

Elizabeth Suchocki, a regular attendee who lives in Tempe, echoed that sentiment.

“I felt cramped and anxious,” Suchocki said. “All of a sudden, there were just so many people in our area. … But people just kept packing in and packing in and there were people all over. And I was like OK, this is a lot of people, this is very uncomfortable.”

All right uh final topic of conversation today is the uh probably something maybe many of you could care less about but I think we can make it interesting I think it’s something that is a relatively reasonable conversation about business in general and that is the PGA Tour and

What are they going to do about the waste o the Waste Management Open for those that don’t know the waste management opens held at Phoenix every single year it’s usually right around the time of the Super Bowl I don’t know if it’s to be fair to me I I don’t know

If it’s the Super Bowl week every single year but it’s right around that time frame and and they’ve become known for their stadium seating on the 16th hole which is a par three it gets Ruckus it gets loud there’s really no golf etiquette if you want to call it that

The white collar in golf goes completely away becomes a little more blue collar and it’s become known as a little more of a party atmosphere and it’s fun it’s an enjoyable thing it’s supposed to be fun it’s supposed to be fun uh that was until this Saturday uh this Saturday

Things kind of got off the rails a little bit started off with the fact that they sold tickets they weren’t scanning the tickets to get in so they realized this about halfway through people were getting in there that didn’t have tickets and people that had tickets were still staying and

Waiting in this big long line and the next thing you know you found out that oh by the way just because you have tickets we’re going to have to re give you a refund because we have way too many people in the premises already and unfortunately you’re going to not be

Able to enter even though you already paid for a ticket that’s strike number one strike number two is a situation that well happens when you drink a lot of alcohol uh I I I I don’t suggest that it’s something that we should be proud about as a society but it happens we all

Know what it is you drink a lot of alcohol you do things you probably normally wouldn’t do you make a fool of yourself if you hadn’t seen the Waste Management Open and you didn’t see what happened on Saturday we’re going to show you a few Clips to catch you up to speed

And we’re going to talk about what it is the PGA Tour should do where they’re at with it and what they’re going to do moveing [Applause] forward are we supposed to putt with that going on dog yep it’s all right go watch the shot next year buddy when he’s over a

Shot shut the up man come on a damn golf shot here a [ __ ] job oh don’t don’t Ser me somebody said it I’m just sick of it just shut upow up oh don’t don’t Ser me somebody said it all right so you can see obviously golfers are starting to get frustrated

People are making fools of themselves it got so bad that uh unfortunately the waste management as you could see in a tweet here they had to suspend alcohol sales 30 fans blacked out on Saturday there was a woman that fell off the grandstands and unfortunately like it or not the drink

Responsibly wasn’t taken seriously listen this isn’t about some moral hierarchy of whether or not you should do what you do when you go to a place or whether you should handle yourself and how you should conduct yourself obviously those are individual decisions that are made on each individual

Personal basis but what I will say is obviously from a league standpoint from a from a business standpoint at some point you have to take control of your own your own event and that’s what they tried to do it got a little loose and unfortunately it’s built up to this

Point I hope the PGA T realizes that this is something they can manage and control and you don’t just take it away now the players some of them are just babies I we can call a spade to Spade sometimes around here sometimes these golfers they they you know listen they

Fly around on their private jets they get their own massage therapists they’re making millions of dollars and they’re living a pretty lavish lifestyle right and it’s it’s reasonable to suspect that if you have that happen over the course of your life over maybe a year two 3

Years down the line you become pretty soft you become pretty soft and that is well most golfers it would be nice if we could find a way where again maybe there is some etiquette and that’s where we want I want to talk through this a little bit

With you uh around the room is this I think that there should be some etiquette on a backswing right like okay you can’t scream and yell right in the middle of someone’s back swing but we’re allowed to discuss and have conversation the whole entire time there can be a

Buzz around the stadium right there could be a buzzz around the stadium and by Stadium I mean the whole entire Golf Course it’d be really nice if you could find a way to where this is the one outlier event that again the fans are able to be a little more vocal than

Usual and it becomes more or less like a football atmosphere it’d be nice to see that on the golf course it’d be nice to see that on the golf course if you hit a bad shot because you don’t like the way that somebody you know it sounds out

There or there’s too much yelling going on this that and the other then so be it I’m pretty sure that the PGA tour could get smart enough to where they they just pump in white noise on every hole if they wanted to right you could you could pump in artificial sounds to where

There’s not one guy when it’s silent you could just scream and it and it it obviously becomes very very distracting I would prefer them to go that route than the alternative route which is hey we’re going back to the way the PGA Tour has always been shut up don’t say

Nothing everyone’s got to be quiet and if you don’t we’re going to kick you off the premises the PGA T has an excellent opportunity in my opinion to win some golf fans if you want to call it some just general sports fans over because this is a different way to be able to

Get into golf do you feel like anything that happened over the weekend Elliot was an overreaction by the waste management or was it a situation now where the PGA Tour has to do what’s in the best interest of their league and that is basically to kick fans out and

Make sure this doesn’t happen again that was a disgrace what happened this weekend was a disgrace and and and again you you almost have to Market it this way and that’s really what you started your your point on is that the PGA obviously it’s known as this very strict follow

The rules uh type of thing a and you get this one event per year one event where you just get to be crazy you just get to act like a fool it’s basically the fans versus The Players you get to Rattle everybody and it becomes this sort of

Team thing for the fans just to all pile on top of every player out there every golfer out there where we’re at a point now where unfortunately you have to get rid of the event not in terms of what it is the waste management open’s not going

Anywhere but in terms of the craziness you you can’t let a little bit of crazy because the little bit of crazy ensues more crazy and then it just piles on top I think there are babies out there uh I I mean I I don’t know what was being

Said but there were everybody was TW all the golfers a lot of the golfers were tweeting afterwards how terrible it was during back during back swings just screaming yelling uh it it became a place that just it’s not golf we make fun of the Happy Gilmore movie damn you

People this is golf uh but at some point it actually is like I when trace and I played tennis right trace Made the joke where tennis you have to be quiet during certain parts because it’s going to distract you it’s golf’s the same exact way you can’t yell during a guy’s back

Swing there is you have to have you have a little bit of concentration there I’m all for fun I’m all for I’m all for making things like that like a a pseudo Rider cup atmosphere where everybody’s Wild uh going crazy uh but it takes it it does take away from the event and

What the event is is a golf tournament shout out to by the way and nobody watched the end of it because it led right into the Super B I did did you I did I had a sec like separ Charlie Hoffman had a three shot lead with I

Want to say five holes to go or six holes to go yeah I bet 20 well I bet some money on Charlie Hoffman to win by the way Charlie Hoffman was the it turns out that the jokes on me by the way because now I look like an idiot for

Saying what I’m about to say I still am convinced that’s the greatest that was the greatest oddson value that I’ve ever received from the sports books ever he had a three- shot lead he had a three shot lead uh with one hole to play and you could get you could get Charlie

Hoffman at plus money it was like plus 110 for him to win now he he obviously didn’t win so I guess I’m the idiot because I thought it was free money and thankfully for me I didn’t you know uh I didn’t bet the the ranch on it hammer it

But but plus 110 to to concede what you’re getting ready to to say I thought it was a a for sure guarantee but what happened Elliot well that would be Nick Taylor this is a Canadian a young Canadian man who obviously bird e 18 forced the playoff and beat Charlie

Hoffman uh to win an electric tournament uh but yeah to answer your initial question unfortunately this will probably be the last year of of going absolutely crazy there’s going to be uh a stricter policy when it comes to alcohol consumption at this event and it

Should be and it should be we can’t have the heckling thing’s fine and dandy but you can’t like ruin the game I agree my only my my complaint more is on the is more on the operational side of the Waste Management Open like whoever runs

That event than it is of the actual like the way that it that that the event has kind of morphed into I think that the the loud atmosphere for this one event can help the game of golf like I and my you know listen the whole Liv thing I

Don’t think the the the the Liv play louder and that whole thing I think that’s a little bit of a joke it does stink that obviously the Dustin Johnson’s the D Shambo the um John ROMs now aren’t available to watch on the PJ tour because the PJ tour in my opinion

Is just a superior product now I know many people may argue that and I don’t blame them for taking the money quite frankly kudos to them but the point is is that obviously live Li dies by the idea of it being funds entertaining atmosphere don’t know if you caught the

Clip of it obviously we can run it we can run it maybe um tomorrow but John ROMs just pissed off at the world I don’t know if you’ve seen that at the live golf event um yeah in fact we’ll make that the cherry on top for today if

You can pull that clip up just type in John ROM live it’ll probably pop up but uh ultimately listen my point is simple I would love for there to be a golf tournament where there was a football atmosphere for golf on every hole and I think that they could get that done if

They made grand stands on every single hole and they they just do what hopefully every other organization does which is manage people that are having alcohol you can’t serve people alcohol if they’re already belligerent if they’re belligerent while they’re there maybe I don’t know heighten up security

Where you can just start escorting these people out of there if they’re belligerent but again I think it’s gotten to the point where people clearly tailgate before they go in right they’re they’re probably plastered when they walk through the gates um I don’t know if it’s legal or not maybe it’s it would

Take way too long but if you feel like somebody’s belligerent there should be a breathalyzer test boom if they blow over a certain number Elliott they’re gone gone don’t let a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch is what I’m getting at although that’s how this Society works

There’s a lot of bad apples there well how many I feel like that was the whole tree how many I feel like the whole tree how many people went to the the Waste Management Open there’s I don’t know somebody giv me a number in the chat 50,000 people we got we got videos

Of 20 30 40 people 30 people not being able to remember who or where they are is a tough scene I’m not suggesting that ambulance is being called everywhere I’m just saying you can’t cancel the whole entire deal because 30 people and listen I’m not suggesting that that’s good I am

Saying that that is manageable you can manage that and waste maybe should be able to man manage that like Waste Management Open hopefully they could do something there to where you could figure that out reain it in perhaps