Today, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama won the Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour at the TPC in Scottsdale, Arizona, for the second year in row on the fourth role of a sudden-death playoff. He had tied Webb Simpson, who won the U.S. Open in 2012. Today, Simpson rallied with three birdies on the final four holes in regulation play while Matsuyama parred into the clubhouse. Both men had a 72 hole total of 267, 17 under par.
On the 72nd hole, Simpson was finished when Matsuyama, with a chance to win it outright, left he makeable birdie putt on that hole short, right on the front lip of the cup. Simpson did the same in one of the playoff holes. Matsuyama made a ten foot birdie putt on the 17th hole, which was the fourth extra hole, to soon lift the trophy again as the champion.
The 17th hole at TPC-Scottsdale is very tricky. It is a drivable par four with a water hazard that lines the left side of a very long green that curves around the backside of the green. The last day or two, the hole is place on the back of the green. Since the water hazard starts right where the green begins, the safe play for many pros is a three wood off the tee so that the ball is placed just short of the green. If the shot goes left, hopefully the ball finishes short of the water hazard. But that is no easy pitch to a back pin placement. Many pros in this tournament have pitched just barely over the green to see the ball roll down into that water hazard. On Saturday, Matsuyama had driven into the water hazard to make a bogey. But today, on both occasions he laid up safely, just short of the green.
As for Simpson on that final playoff hole on the 17th, his three wood shot made the front right portion of the green. But there was a small sand bunker between his ball and the hole because the right side of the green curves around that bunker. So, Simpson was forced to play his putt about 15-20 feet to the right of the hole. He then missed his birdie putt, giving him a three-putt, and Matsuyama made his birdie putt to emerge as victor.
I live near the TPC-Scottsdale, so I attend the tournament every year, usually two days. The weather was magnificent, and the crowds set new records. It is not only the most well-attended golf tournament in the world, but also the the most well-attended athletic event in the world. Saturday’s gallery tally was almost 205,000 people for a total week of well over 655,000 in attendance. The previous weekly total was just over 600,000.
For me as a PGA Tour pro who played the regular Tour and Champions Tour full-time for thirty years, it’s hard imagine how many people that is unless you’ve seen it. There is only one place you can enter the grounds. At about 10:00AM-12:00 noon on Saturday, at any one moment there are thousands of people standing there waiting to go through the entrance, which has about fifteen ticket counters. The crowds just keep getting bigger and bigger almost every year at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
The famous little par three 16th hole, with its many grandstands surrounding it, had 22,000 people during much of Saturday’s round. That is more than any NBA game has in attendance. And it’s just one hole! That crowd has a reputation for being rowdy. It is unlike anything else experienced on the PGA Tour. When a player hits a poor iron shot off the tee at that 16th hole, the crowd lets him know it. You can’t really call golf on the 16th hole during this golf tournament a gentlemen’s sport. Many of the pros say they are more nervous on that shot than any other time during the year on Tour, though some add with the exception of being in contention to win some PGA Tour tournament on the closing holes.
The golf course was in superb condition, and players often talk about how much they like playing in this unusual tournament. Despite perfect weather throughout the four days, with hardly any wind, mild 70s temperatures, and almost all sunshine, the scores were not quite as low as in some previous years. The players said that was because the rough beside the fairways was higher than in recent memory, thus putting more premium on driving in the fairways.
Third round leader Byeong Hun An of Korea still led the tournament after nine holes Sunday, but he faltered down the stretch with several bogeys to finish sixth.
Webb Simpson is a regular member of the PGA Tour Bible Study group. He even graduated at Wake Forest University with a degree in theology.
Hideki Matsuyama is becoming one the PGA Tour’s young stars even though he still speaks in Japanese to the media with an interpreter. At only 24 years of age, it seems he is bound to win a first major championship soon and perhaps others after that.
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