The FBR Open… The Best Crowd in Golf??
Call it whatever you want… “The FBR Open”, “The Phoenix Open”, or “The Golf Tournament Played Super Bowl Weekend.” But, this week’s FBR Open at the TPC of Scottsdale, I believe has the best venue on the PGA Tour.
From the performances of the wave, signing happy birthday, booing players who don’t go at the pin, to cheering like it is the Super Bowl for a hole-in-one, the 16th hole at the TPC of Scottsdale is the closest thing to Caddyshack 2’s “Hockey” or “Pinwheel” holes or the 18th hole at the Player’s Championship in Happy Gilmore. Imagine 10,000+ people drinking since they opened the gates and getting ready to hit your tee shot at 3pm. A calm hush goes over the crowd while you approach your ball, grip, re-grip (or many more if you’re sergio), you take the club back and “whack”… The 10,000+ fans in a frenzy begin to scream hoping for that elusive hole-in-one, yet you miss the green in the bunker, and they begin to boo and yell to the guy 40 feet away how they could do better…
I watched a story on the Golf Channel tonight and they described the hole as anything from “intense” to “crazy” to “hostile”… Honestly, I love to watch this tournament and I hope that there are many great shots and the occasional bad shot that gets plenty of jeers…
But, is this good for golf? I think it is… It brings the “Super Bowl” excitement to a pretty amazing tournament.
