Changes are coming to one PGA tournament after a hectic weekend.
During second and third-round play of the Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale on Saturday, overcrowding forced tournament officials to suspend alcohol sales and admissions as tournament employees were unable to accommodate the number of fans that showed up on one of its most highly attended days, prompting a reevaluation of how the tournament operates.
“I think that you will see a complete operational change of how we manage, really, our Friday and Saturday, but the entire week,” Chance Cozby, the executive director of the Thunderbirds, the organization that hosts the tournament, told ESPN. “We’re very proud of what we’ve built. I think we’ve been tournament of the year on the PGA Tour five of the last seven years. But we don’t like what happened on Saturday. The players don’t like what happened on Saturday. Our fans don’t like what happened on Saturday, and, so, nothing is off the table.”
The overcrowding got so bad that fans and players even had heated exchanges with each other, and several players called out the fans for their unacceptable public behavior.
According to ESPN, Cozby further explained that leadership spent “five to six hours” reevaluating its policies and operations, and the main focuses are general admission ticket sales and a “complete security plan.”
The PGA Tour has not released a statement regarding the incident or made any indication it will be revamping its procedures.
The Tour will host its two annual Dallas-Fort Worth-based tournaments this May: the CJ Cup Byron Nelson at McKinney’s TPC Craig Ranch and the Charles Schwab Challenge at Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club.
The Dallas Express reached out to the organizers of both tournaments to inquire about any additional preparations needed given Saturday’s events but has yet to receive a response.
According to a report from last year’s Byron Nelson, the tournament hosted 142,000 people — far fewer than the more than 200,000 TPC Scottsdale has historically averaged for its Saturday rounds alone.