The PGA Tour’s WM Phoenix Open is famous for its party atmosphere, as spectators regularly create as many headlines as the players during the four days of action.
However, while the reputation of the tournament in general goes before it, there is no doubt that the Stadium Hole at TPC Scottsdale is the place to be, regardless of what might be going on elsewhere.
The 162-yard par-3 16th is known as “the loudest hole in golf,” with estimations of anywhere between 16,000 and 20,000 people packed into stands on either side of the tee box and all the way up to and around the green.
At the hole, competitors frequently play up to the raucous atmosphere. In turn, that gets the invariably alcohol-fueled crowd even more revved up with the ever-present possibility of witnessing a hole-in-one.
But how often has there been an ace at the Stadium Hole during the event? Surprisingly few. Since the WM Phoenix Open was first held at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course in 1987, there have been just 11 aces at the hole - an average of one every 3.4 years.
The first came in 1988 during the third round, when Hal Sutton hit one of his 10 PGA Tour holes-in-one at the event he’d won two years earlier.
Two years later, Brad Bryant and David Edwards became the first players to achieve the feat in the same tournament. Bryant managed it in the first round before Edwards followed in the third.
The next year, Jay Delsing got in on the act, hitting a hole-in-one in the first round on his way to finishing T32.
It was another six years until the next ace at the 16th, but it was worth the wait. By the 1997 edition, Tiger Woods already had three PGA Tour victories to his name, and it was just two months before he would leave the golf world aghast at The Masters, winning by a staggering 12 shots. He sent another remarkable sign that he was a generational talent in the third round of the Phoenix Open.
His nine-iron tee shot at the 16th took one bounce before landing in the hole, sending the predictably raucous crowd - and the man himself – wild. It was the second hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career after another ace at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open in his first start as a professional.
There was more joy for the crowd later in the tournament, when, during the fourth round, Steve Stricker brought the tally of aces at the 16th to six.
Another five years elapsed before Mike Sposa made that seven during the second round, and it was another nine years until Jarrod Lyle became the next player to make an ace at the hole, during the third round of the 2011 tournament.
In 2015, it was Francesco Molinari’s chance to shine three years before he won The Open. The Italian’s shot bounced right of the hole before gaining the necessary momentum to trickle in, much to the crowd's delight.
Most recently, 32 years after Bryant and Edwards each made a hole-in-one at the 16th in the same tournament, and 25 years after Woods and Stricker managed it, Sam Ryder and Carlos Ortiz not only did that but in the same round, the third.
🗣 ACE ON 16 🗣What a place for @SamRyderSU's first ace on TOUR! pic.twitter.com/5AemLzhVG2February 12, 2022
Ryder's ace came first, and it prompted wild reactions from the player and fans alike, with cans and cups of beer being thrown from the stands onto the green and surrounding areas.
Later that day, the scenes were repeated when Ortiz landed his tee shot perfectly on the green before the ball rolled into the hole. Incredibly, he then made tournament history by becoming the first player to follow a hole-in-one at the 16th with an eagle at the 17th on his way to finishing T33.
Holes-In-One At The 16th At The WM Phoenix Open
- 1988: Hal Sutton (third round)
- 1990: Brad Bryant (first round)
- 1990: David Edward (third round)
- 1991: Jay Delsing (first round)
- 1997: Tiger Woods (third round)
- 1997: Steve Stricker (fourth round)
- 2002: Mike Sposa (second round)
- 2011: Jarrod Lyle (third round)
- 2015: Francesco Molinari (third round)
- 2022: Sam Ryder (third round)
- 2022: Carlos Ortiz (third round)
