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Waste Management Phoenix Open

 Arizona's Waste Management Phoenix Open is legendary for its world-class golf and raucous crowds

The signs that this was not your everyday PGA golf tournament were hard to ignore.

It could have been the 10,000 people—in primary-coloured golf shirts and pleated pants—packed into a makeshift tent listening to the Bon Jovi cover band.

Or the 5,000 ticket holders who chose to spend most of their day in the beer gardens rather than watching the action on the golf course.

Or it might have simply been the scene at the infamous 16th hole, where the thousands in the bleachers surrounding the otherwise innocuous 135-yeard Par 3, cheer for balls that successfully landed on the green, and vehemently boo those that didn’t.

Whatever it was, I immediately realized the Waste Management Phoenix Open (formerly the FBR Open and prior to that, simply the Phoenix Open) is not for the faint of heart.

TPC Scottsdale

Held at the TPC Scottsdale on the Tournament Course, the Open used to be held on Super Bowl weekend. In fact, in 2009, Arizona golf fans were treated to a very special Sunday.

They first got to enjoy a three-hole playoff to wrap up the Open (eventually won by Kenny Perry), followed by a Super Bowl game in which their beloved Cardinals narrowly lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the dying minutes of the game.

But while a change in sponsorship and a schedule alteration have bumped the newly-named Waste Management Phoenix Open to the end of February, that is unlikely to change what has made this one of the most unique stops on the PGA Tour.

Greatest Show on Grass

More than half a million golf “fans” show up for what’s been dubbed the “Greatest Show on Grass.”

In between watching the likes of Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk grace the fairways, attendees are treated to four days of football stadium type crowds, partying on the 16th hole, and non-stop drinking and dancing at the Birds Nest, a temporary tented nightclub that features a different band nightly.

Other Golf Options

Rather swing than watch? Fear not. Golfers have the opportunity during the Open to play the nearby Champions Course (formerly the Desert Course) at TPC Scottsdale, or anyone of the hundreds of golf courses around the Scottsdale area.

Some of my favourites include Grayhawk Golf Club’s Talon Course and both Troon North courses—Monument and Pinnacle.

The 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open takes place from February 25 to 28.