Of course, there was Tiger Woods’ chip-in in 2005. Jack Nicklaus’ fantastic shot in 1986 en route to his back-nine charge. And more recently, Louis Oosthuizen’s pinball hole-in-one off J.B. Holmes’ ball, and Matt Kuchar’s ace last year.

Add Hoffman to that group, with an unlikely hole-in-one of his own. Hoffman has had a penchant for making noise at Augusta on Thursdays and Fridays the past couple of years. Now he’ll have a moment to remember on Sunday at one of golf’s most famous one-shotters.

.@hoffman_charley aces No. 16 for the first hole-in-one of the Tournament. #themasters pic.twitter.com/xezbJ0cslf

— Masters Tournament (@TheMasters) April 8, 2018

Perhaps ironically, Hoffman’s playing competitor was Tony Finau, who had his own hole-in-one moment earlier in the week turn from memorable to forgettable at the Par 3 Contest, and his gruesome-looking injury. Hoffman’s celebration didn’t quite reach Finau levels of speed, but it was a pretty awesome reaction nonetheless.

Well done by Hoffman. That was quite the unlikely bounce off the fringe. And one of the highlights of the week.

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That same day, one fan yelled “Tater tots!” in the middle of Jordan Spieth’s downswing on the 18th hole.

There was also a streaker. That was on Wednesday, before the tournament even began. 

These were just a few of the incidents that played out in what is becoming an increasing amount of debauchery during the biggest party in golf.

Now, a few bad mashed potato heads always seem to spoil it for everyone else, yes, but for one week a year it is becoming the norm more than the exception.

How exactly is this a good thing?

For all the NFL’s shortcomings it doesn’t try to be something it’s not. It never has. Name the sport and the same is true.

Except for golf, which every year around this time tries so hard to be so cool.

What, by the way, is so cool about yelling in someone’s backswing? Yeah, real cool, bro.

One could argue (and many do) that the laid back atmosphere at the Wasted Management brings casual fans to the game and exposes them to something they’re not familiar with. In doing so, they might actually walk away liking it.

Or, maybe they’ll just walk away hammered. A surge in Scottsdale police records for alcohol-related arrests during Phoenix Open week would certainly seem to indicate so.

Now, all those people pouring through the gates do help raise millions for charity every year. That’s big money and it has a real impact on the community.

At the center of it all is TPC Scottsdale’s 16th hole, an otherwise ho-hum par-3 that turns humming with 16,000 screaming fans amid its confines of a stadium that surrounds the entire thing.

Much the way J.B. Holmes became the dartboard for the tour’s slow play issues for the absurdly long four minutes he took to play a shot on the final hole of the Farmers Insurance Open, the 16th in the desert is the face of what this tournament has become.

Related: Gary Woodland wins the Waste Management Phoenix Open in a playoff

Singularly, each isn’t that big of a problem and it’s unfair for each to get all the blame. In the larger picture, though, both are significant contributors to larger issues.

In short, amid all that spilled beer (having spent a full day camped out in the stadium I can attest to lots of various, uh, spilled liquids, among other NSFW things) somewhere along the way of this stunt came a spillover effect.

This much was evident in the comments made by golf’s Mr. Nice Guy, Fowler, and by others through the years. Not to mention the players who just don’t bother even showing up because the hassle isn’t worth it (see Woods, Tiger).

I wonder, too, that if golf was substituted with some other activity filling the background, if so many people would still come anyway? After all, there’s warm sun, cold booze, people to watch and things to shout.

Just not in someone’s backswing, please. SMH.

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By Joel Beall
The Waste Management Phoenix Open is known for its stadium scene at the 16th, but the tournament is more than a one-hole wonder. The event regularly boasts the largest crowds on the PGA Tour, and in all of sport for that matter. Last year’s WMPO drew an estimated 655,434 fans to the premises, breaking the weekly-attendance record by 30,000.

And word out of the desert is 2018’s circus could be even bigger.

According to AZCentral’s John Davis, there was speculation at TPC Scottsdale on Monday that “This Saturday’s attendance could approach 250,000.”

For context, the tournament set the single-day crowd mark in 2017, with 204,906 fans enjoying the Saturday show.   

“With the field, the crowd and the pro-am lineup, in my opinion we have the right ingredients for an amazing week,” chairman Carlos Sugich told Davis.

What’s the catalyst behind this (projected) uptick? The WMPO field is perhaps the best in tournament history, led by the hottest player in golf, and Arizona State product, Jon Rahm. Other popular figures include Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson, another Sun Devil who has won the event three times. Two-time defending champ Hideki Matsuyama will also tee it up.

As for the weather, the current Saturday forecast calls for a cloudless, sunny sky with temperatures hovering around the mid-70s. Ideal conditions to take in the TPC Scottsdale spectacle.

However, these numbers should be tempered. Calculating crowd size is a fickle matter, and the WMPO figures have long been, ahem, taken with a grain of salt.

Nevertheless, Sugich says the numbers take a back seat to a different priority.

“I would love to break the record again, but to be honest we already have the largest tournament in the world and we are really focused on the experience for fans,” he said. “We want people to enjoy the new amenities and everything that the tournament has to offer, no matter how many fans we have. At the end of the day, the experience is what it’s all about.”

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