The PGA Tour Waste Management Phoenix Open "broke its total attendance record" this week, as 618,365 fans attended the event at TPC Scottsdale, according to Steven Totten of the PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL. The total breaks the previous record of 564,368, which was set last year. With 27 more luxury boxes this year at a cost of around $50,000 each, the Thunderbirds, who host the event, are "sure to bring in" more than the $32.4M in revenue generated from the '14 tournament (BIZJOURNALS.com, 2/7). GOLFCHANNEL.com's Rex Hoggard wrote tournament directors are "always looking for ways to improve their events and no one ever seems sure what the answer is." But it "seems whatever the folks at the Waste Management Phoenix Open are doing is a good place to start" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 2/7). Tournament Chair Dan Mahoney: “We have fully embraced the fun. The community has embraced what we do. Most, if not all of the golfers have embraced what we’re doing. It’s not a shock to any of these players when they come here. They know what they’re getting into. I think the PGA Tour in general needs to embrace that type of fun atmosphere because golf is not popular across generations. The millennials are not demonstrating a great interest in it. So we need to do things to change the game, and I think the Waste Management Phoenix Open can be an agent of change” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 2/8).
CROWD CONTROL: In Phoenix, Dan Bickley noted a record crowd of 201,003 "was announced for the third round ... which is 30,000 more than the Kentucky Derby posted in May." An estimated 1,000 people were "lined up outside when the gates opened at 7 a.m., most of whom made a mad dash for a coveted spot at the 16th hole," where the scene "keeps getting bigger and better." The three-tiered stadium seating around the hole "sounds like the Roman Colosseum." It "feels like a sporting event unto itself." It also has "become one of the most iconic holes in the golf, and certainly the loudest." On Saturday, NBC "placed a boom microphone in front of the tee-box bleachers, encouraging the crowd to make lots of noise for television." That live feed "convinced the tournament to halt beer sales in the section before noon, leading to some agitation among the gathering" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 2/7). GOLFWEEK's Jeff Babineau wondered how the Thunderbirds arrive at their daily attendance figures." Mahoney would not divulge specifically, but said that a formula is "used that takes into consideration the number of parked cars, tickets sold and concession sales" (GOLFWEEK.com, 2/7).
JUST FOR SHOW? In N.Y., Phil Mushnick writes the "'Isn’t this fun?' and 'You can feel the energy' stuff that this weekend came out of Golf Channel/NBC ... sounded tired and unconvincing, as disingenuous pandering is so often heard." Mushnick: "There’s no PGA [Tour] event annually more predicated on both the sale and abuse of alcohol. To that end, no one finds the Wasted Management Open more 'fun and entertaining' than the [PGA Tour's] bottom-liners" (N.Y. POST, 2/8).
