I’m thinking back to the wild, waterlogged 2024 WM Phoenix Open, and all the remarkable images to emerge from the five-day tournament – one shirtless man belly-flopping onto a muddy fairway, another backflipping into a sand bunker, fans jawing at golfers, golfers jawing at fans – and one favorite stands out.
The beer snake.
Not familiar with the term? It was a phalanx of several hundred empty beer cups that disgruntled fans at the legendary 16th hole married together in protest when alcohol sales were suspended during the third round of play Saturday afternoon.
A serpent of Solos, if you will.
A subsequent Arizona Republic photo showed a Scottsdale police officer solemnly removing a segment of the sinuous objet from the grandstands. The photo caption identified it as a “beer snake,” and I thought that was very amusing. So very WMPO.
The rowdy goings-on in 2024 compelled many in the media and golf communities to reach for their pearls, but as you might be able to tell, I wasn’t one of them. The “People’s Open,” with its big-tent philosophy and 800,000-plus annual spectators, has always been a raucous affair. That’s part of its charm. But clearly it was the once-in-a-generation rainstorm that tipped it into extra-legal zaniness in 2024. We’re Phoenicians, after all. We lose our minds when it rains.
In any case, the 2024 Phoenix Open went viral, and the not-outstanding publicity inspired the Phoenix Thunderbirds (the Valley philanthropic club that stages the tournament) to make some much-needed improvements, including a new, additional fan entrance and wider crowd paths on the course. You’ll read about them in this WM Phoenix Open Field Guide, the eighth such tournament handbook that PHOENIX has published as a free annual bonus issue for our subscribers. It’s also crammed with on-course fashion tips, Instagram follows, player profiles, Birds Nest previews and much more.
As the 2025 WM Phoenix Open draws near, the craziness of 2024 will inevitably resurface as a talking point. That’s fair, but also consider this: The 2024 tournament, for all its challenges, still managed to raise $17.5 million for Valley charities, shattering the previous record by more than $3 million.
Now those are pearls you can clutch.
