Read the whole thing about all the fun at the 16th hole at the FBR Open in Scottsdale Arizona.
“I think you need to go to the 16th hole to understand,” said Tom Lehman, who has homes in Del Mar and Scottsdale. “On Saturday and Sunday, especially, when the crowds are at their peak on the hillside on the back, the green is full of people sitting and watching. It’s virtually a bowl. It’s like playing a golf shot in the Rose Bowl. It’s unlike anyplace that you’ll ever go.”
Five bunkers hug the slick green, but it’s the people jammed in the double layers of boxes and suites and filling the hill behind the hole that makes this place thunder.
“It’s like a rock ‘n’ roll major,” said Santa Ana’s Kent Sneden, taking it in for the first time. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Neither have the players.
“Its like a football atmosphere out there on a golf course,” Brandt Snedeker said. “It’s different out there from what we are used to.”
Like the 20-something bunch near the tee box. They come prepared, peppering players with tidbits that are stunning.
“It’s amazing,” Lehman said. “Those guys who have always sat right next to the tee, all the college kids with all the different football jerseys, they know every player’s alma mater, every fight song. So when you show up on the Tour they start singing, whether it be the Minnesota Gophers or the Michigan Wolverines or maybe the Packer jersey for Jerry Kelly, but they must have a truckload of jerseys and a boxful of music to know all the words.”
Word is No. 16 first got its groove on when Hal Sutton scored an ace in 1988 and the place went bonkers. Others point to 1997 when Tiger Woods scored a hole-in-one and it started raining —- beer cups. Some were empty, some were full, some we aren’t sure where they came from.