- The Waste Management Phoenix Open has earned a reputation as the best party in all of golf.
- The notoriously rowdy par-3 16th hole was showered with bottles last year in response to a hole-in-one.
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — The Waste Management Phoenix Open is the wildest party in all of golf.
Nowhere on the course is the party partying harder than "The Coliseum" par 3 No. 16, which puts players in a well surrounded by fans on all sides, with the rowdiest, public section of the stands located right off the green.
Last year, No. 16 made national news when fans littered beer bottles across the green while celebrating Sam Ryder's ace.
—Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) February 12, 2022
It was a great moment for the promotion of golf to a wider audience: Look at what a raucous time this gentleman's game can be!
It was also something of a problem. People have to golf and can't do it through a mess of bottles. Further, full bottles turning into projectiles is a safety hazard that the PGA Tour would undoubtedly prefer to avoid.
Heading into 2023, the Open had a plan — no more bottles on No. 16.
Instead, fans in the area were asked to move their beverages into a plastic cup emblazoned with the hole's logo. They were nice, and could even serve as a souvenir of sorts for fans looking to take home an essentially free keepsake from the tournament.
Beers served by vendors on the hole were poured straight into the cups to ensure no bottles got out of hand, and those entering the hole walked past a station for taking their beverage out of the bottle and into a cup.
This seemed like a sensible solution to the bottle problem, but the cups unwittingly unlocked a new issue that would quickly make itself known: beer snakes.
With the Super Bowl also in the greater Phoenix area this week, fans were especially ready to get the party started early.
When I arrived in the public section of the stands, there were three primary beer snakes already competing to reach for the sky. I cannot stress enough that it was only 12:22 p.m. when this was happening.
—tryler (@tylerlauletta) February 9, 2023
"I knew this was going to happen!" one beer vendor said to me as the competing snakes took to the skies.
At the base of each snake was a field general of sorts, encouraging others around them to join their cause. Parties from competing snakes attempted to negotiate terms of unity to form an ultra snake, but none of the three sides wished to concede, as every party wished to be the base of the ur-beer snake.
The competition was fierce. One side loudly announced, "GROUP CHUG!" to quickly add to their total. In response, another team announced a group chug of their own.
"For the snake!" one fan yelled, before emptying his glass.
Again, it was not yet 1 p.m.
Minutes later, the largest of the three competing snakes was able to add an up-and-coming snake previously unknown to their stack, taking what looked like an insurmountable lead in the competition.
"Na na na na / na na na na / hey hey hey / goodbyyyyyyyye," the group chanted to their defeated combatants.
Just a little while later, security made its way to both groups asking to please keep the snakes under control. From my vantage point, both primary groups still in competition were drunkenly cooperative, much like frat boys talking to police officers who were responding to a noise complaint.
As it would turn out, security would have its hands plenty full in the coming days. On Friday, a fan took a run onto the green, which this website does not condone.
—Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) February 10, 2023
While that fan might have let things get away from himself, in the early afternoon of Thursday's first round, the crowd around No. 16 was the perfect level of drunk, jeering, and enjoying the sunshine.
On Friday, the beer snakes finally unionized, at least from what I could see from home.
—Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 10, 2023
The Waste Management Phoenix Open is promoted as "The People's Open," and it certainly delivered on that promise.