There is no more fun corner in the world of golf than the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale. Around 20,000 fans gather in its stands waiting for golfers to have a stroke of fortune and hole in a single shot on this par 3.
After a year with reduced capacity due to Covid, The party has returned to Arizona. And first Sam Ryder on Saturday and this Sunday, Carlos Ortiz have brought delirium to the stands. And the bottles and glasses, with liquid and everything, to the green as is tradition.
“I don’t think there’s a par 3 that has as much power as this one,” Ryder said Saturday. “The 17th hole of the Ponte Vedra TPC, for example, is also very significant, but there is not the atmosphere here. You know you have to do well, because if you do not get booed. that I was going to fall short, but I entered”.
To round off the session, American Harry Higgs, who had made the pair, wanted to star in his particular moment. With the crowd already more drunk than sober, he celebrated the putt by first lifting his jersey like footballers do, then taking it off and waving it with his raised right arm like a scarf.
“They cheer you up when you hit a good one and they boo you when you hit a bad one, which is what you deserve,” Brooks Koepka told reporters. “I love these guys. I like to play in front of a lot of people.”
Jon Rahm, meanwhile, also sees an electrifying moment. At the beginning he wore a jersey with the colors of Arizona State, his university, the Sun Devils, on that hole. This year I already announced that he could not. “It’s a matter of sponsors,” he warned at Wednesday’s press conference.
