It’s time to party.
Super Bowl Weekend doesn’t just mean … well, the Super Bowl. The biggest week on the U.S. sporting calendar annually shares its date with the WM Phoenix Open—the “greatest show on grass.”
The PGA Tour’s “People’s Open” will convene at TPC Scottsdale with a star-studded 132-player field. The winner will take home $1,656,000 from the $9.2 million purse—and potentially some beer stains if they ace the famous par-3 16th hole.
From its field, course, history and tee times, here’s what you need to know for the 2025 WM Phoenix Open.
The field
The PGA Tour might not have granted the tournament signature status, but the game’s top players always show up in the desert.
This year, 15 of the top 30 players in the world and 29 of the top 50 will tee it up in Phoenix, highlighted by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 5 Hideki Matsuyama and No. 7 Wyndham Clark.
There will also be six past champions of the event: Matsuyama (2016–17), Gary Woodland (2018), Rickie Fowler (2019), Webb Simpson (2020), Scheffler (2022–23), Webb Simpson (2020) and Nick Taylor (2024).
Luke Clanton, Chez Reavie, Kevin Streelman, Arizona State University senior Jose Luis Ballester Barrio and former Arizona High School state champion Frankie Capan III received sponsor exemptions. Clanton, a Florida State junior, can earn his Tour card by making the cut.
Last year, Taylor rallied from three strokes down with four holes left to play to force a playoff with Charley Hoffman and won with an 11-footer for birdie. It was the sixth playoff in the event’s last nine editions.
If Taylor can successfully defend his title, he’ll become the Tour’s first two-time winner this season, as he won the Sony Open in January.
And finally, the WM Phoenix Open held it’s final Monday qualifier after 77 years of doing so, with the Tour set to reduce open qualifiers starting in 2026. For its grand finale, Steven Fisk, Max McGreevy and Will Chandler played their way into this week’s field.
The course
There’s a story that Kenny Perry was checking into a hotel (or, as other versions have been told, at a restaurant or barbershop) the clerk asked the 2009 champion if he was in town for the Phoenix Open. Perry then said yes and the clerk responded: “I love the golf tournament, I go there every night!”
Yes, the event is indeed a golf tournament—not just a party.
And it’s played on TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course.
The course, where the 92-year-old event has been played since 1987, is a Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish-designed 7,261-yard, par-71. It features green sizes of 7,069 sq. feet, 67 bunkers and six holes with water in play.
Out of 50 courses on Tour in 2024, it was the 25th hardest course with a scoring average of 69.895 (-1.105).
Its hardest hole is the 484-yard, par-4 11th. It doglegs right, slopes left and has trees on the right with a water hazard on the left.
Its most famous hole, however, is the par-3 16th, which has an almost 17,000-person amphitheater surrounding it, creating an atmosphere like no other hole on Tour (and also helping make the event the Tour’s most attended).
The par-3 has yielded 11 hole in ones. Its most famous was Tiger Woods’s in 1997 (before the grandstand was built) and its most recent were Sam Ryder’s and Carlos Ortiz's in 2022.
The iconic 16th hole @WMPhoenixOpen is loud.@TigerWoods making an ace on the 16th hole is 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 loud.#TOURVault pic.twitter.com/H8vAh3QlKL
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 3, 2021
“I think it’s great that there’s one a year because they do it right,” Justin Thomas said of No. 16 last year. “I think people underestimate that when you have—how many people are on the hole, 20,000 people in one place, when there’s a lot of constant noise, it just is almost like a white noise sound. But when you get 1,000 people and you get a couple people that decide to be that person, then it’s just kind of annoying.”
No. 16 may get all the attention, but the ensuing hole is quite a thrill, too. No. 17 is a drivable 332-yard par-4 with a slight tug left that brings water into play.
And speaking of that hole …
History: The longest—and wildest—ace ever
Andrew Magee might have the most memorable T44 in PGA Tour history.
In the first round of the 2001 WM Phoenix Open, Magee stepped up to No. 17 fresh off a birdie.
With the group in front of him (Steve Pate, Tom Byrum and Gary Nicklaus) on the putting surface, Magee didn’t think he’d reach the green, considering his driving distance averaged 283 yards in 2001 (No. 61 on Tour).
Magee, though, took a rip that went farther than he expected. The ball rolled onto the green, ricocheting off Byrum’s putter and causing Pate to jump out of the ball’s way.
“The ball went past me,” Pate recalled in 2021 for PGATour.com. “Tom Byrum was kneeling down reading a putt and the putter head was resting on the ground, and it deflected off of that and it went in.”
Wait, what?
“We all kind [of] looked at one another like, ‘Did that do what we think it did?’” said Jerry Smith, Magee’s playing partner.
Yes, indeed. The only hole in one on a par-4 during an official PGA Tour round.
“I really didn’t know until I got 100 yards from the green,” Magee said in ‘21. “The crowd is still cheering and clapping and my dad is raising his arms and the Tour official is driving the cart kind of alongside with me, and he goes, ‘Yep, it counts.’ I said, ‘Even if I hit somebody? It’s not a penalty?’ He goes, ‘No, if you hit your own equipment it is, but this is a 1. It’s recorded.’”
Unfortunately, there’s no video of the historic feat, but it’s still an indelible moment.
“Every time there’s a close one, I get texts from my friends saying I survived another day,” Magee said. “If you Google me, it’s the first thing that comes up. It doesn’t say I won four times on Tour and played 600 tournaments.”
How to watch (all times EST)
- Thursday-Friday: 4–8 p.m. (Golf Channel)
- Saturday: 1–3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3–6:30 p.m. (CBS)
- Sunday: 1–3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3–6 p.m. (CBS)
ESPN+ will also have nearly 10 hours of featured coverage all four days.
A playoff on Sunday, as this event has seen many times in recent memory, might dip into the Super Bowl’s kickoff, so make sure to have your double screening plan ready.
Round 1 and 2 tee times
Groupings and starting times for the first and second rounds of the WM Phoenix Open pic.twitter.com/8M8jPxljnR
— PGA TOUR Communications (@PGATOURComms) February 4, 2025
This article was originally published on www.si.com as WM Phoenix Open Preview: Course, Field, History, Tee Times, How to Watch.
