What does the future hold for the Phoenix Open after abysmal fan conduct?

16th hole at TPC Scottsdale outside tournament week / credit: Billy Durnan

On Sunday night Chris Gotterup claimed a dramatic victory in the 91st edition of the Phoenix Open, birdieing five of his final six holes to force and then win a playoff over Hideki Matsuyama, and in the process claim a second win of the PGA TOUR season and move to the top of the FedEx Cup rankings. However, the headlines from this week will not be about the win for Gotterup, or even the compelling finish, it will, rightly, focus on the outrageous fan behaviour which saw Hideki Matsuyama disturbed twice and saw an unsavoury incident result in the ejection of a so-called YouTube personality.

The Phoenix Open was first played as the Arizona Open in 1932, very few people would have ever envisioned the tournament becoming as big as it is today; in 1935 after a lack of local support the tournament folded and it wasn't until 1939 and the intervention of Bob Goldwater Sr that the Phoenix Open returned. It returned under the management and leadership of the Thunderbirds, a Phoenix-based charitable organisation, and the event went from strength to strength being played at the Phoenix Country Club and the Arizona Country Club with several iconic figures of the game claiming victory.

Nelson, Hogan, Locke, Demaret, Littler, Middlecoff, Casper, Venturi, Fleck, Palmer, Nicklaus, Boros, Miller, Pate, Crenshaw, Graham, Wadkins, Peete and Sutton among others won the Phoenix Open between 1939 and 1986, making the Phoenix Open a sought after title, but it was in 1987 that this big golf tournament became a truly iconic event that the whole of the Arizona community could get behind. The move to TPC Scottsdale has made it the most attended golf tournament in the world and one of the top ten spectator events held annually anywhere in the world. The first year achieved a then record attendance of 257,000 – some 70,000 more people attended the Phoenix Open in the first year at the TPC than did a year earlier in the final year at Phoenix Country Club.

Attendances have since increased dramatically and in seven of the last eleven years have topped the half a million mark for spectators over the week of the tournament, with over 100,000 people attending in a single day on 30 days over the last 22 editions of the tournament. Attendances have topped 150,000 on 8 occasions for a single day and the single day record stands at a staggering 173,210 set in the third round of the 2012 tournament. Only once in the last 10 years has an attendance on a Friday or Saturday dipped below 100,000 and that was still an attendance of over 74,000 on the Friday in 2011. In 2016 the tournament attracted a staggering 201,003 fans on a single day, truly unbelievable numbers which bare testament to the incredible job the Thunderbirds have done since they took on the running of the Phoenix Open some 86 years ago.

Over 20,000 seats are located at the par three 16th hole which is marketed as the loudest hole in golf, but it isn't all about one hole at the TPC Scottsdale, this course is truly world-class and could easily stage a Ryder Cup if the opportunity ever came. It boasts many holes which would be brilliant for match play and has one of the finest four hole finishing stretches in all of golf, beginning at the par five 15th, followed by the 16th then the drivable par four 17th and the demanding par four 18th. This is a true stadium course, I would argue by far a better example of a stadium course than the original at TPC Sawgrass, it has mounding in all of the right places and the Thunderbirds have fulfilled the potential of this great event by doing everything they possibly can to attract all categories of spectator to the Phoenix Open each year.

But the sad fact is, the event has had a noticeable decline in fan behaviour over recent years, with drunken behaviour threatening to tarnish an event which has already gained a reputation as the most rowdy event in golf, although it used to be under control. Things have declined so much that the tournament management have taken to printing a fan code of conduct in the tournament program, as seen below.

This year's incidents were particularly awful, and have no place on any golf tour in the world, let alone the PGA TOUR and a tournament with nearly a century of history. So-called YouTube influencer, Streamer, Jack Doherty, offered a fan $100 to yell "jack@ss" during Mackenzie Hughes backswing at the WM Phoenix Open. Police swiftly removed him, and an official proceeded to issue him a lifetime ban from all PGA Tour events. Not only is the person who took the $100 an complete idiot, and should be banned for life, Jack Doherty has given all YouTube personalities a bad name through his ludicrous conduct. Nothing the tournament has done has encouraged this nonsense, but idiots exist in society, the only surprise is usually this behaviour could be put down to being under the influence of alcohol, on this occasion neither were drunk.

Then on Sunday fans heckled and shouted deliberately at Hideki Matsuyama, disturbing his routine and clearly leading to the errors which saw him lose the tournament when in position to win it. Shockingly the PGA TOUR's media partners did not, and have not since condemned this unbelievable behaviour, which has clearly led to the alteration of a tournament on the course. In fact the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav celebrated how great the Phoenix Open was, as did the guys at No Laying Up.

Warren Smith of FOX wasn't backwards in coming forwards though

Could the Phoenix Open be dropped from the PGA TOUR under new framework, and if so could it end up as being part of another tour?

The PGA TOUR is set to look very different in the years to come, with rumours suggesting the season could indeed begin in the week following the Super Bowl - potentially with the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am - and have a much reduced schedule, encouraging the best players in the world to play in the same tournaments more often throughout the season. If this comes to pass then there would seem to be a very real possibility that the WM Phoenix Open will not be a part of that future framework, despite its history, enormous fan support and unrivalled community impact.

It would seem unfathomable that the WM Phoenix Open would not be part of the PGA TOUR's future, especially if the TOUR is looking to build a schedule of big events with history, tradition and legacy, but it is clear that the fan behaviour is becoming a huge issue, despite what the media partners of the PGA TOUR have proclaimed. 31 of the world's top 50 golfers played in the 2026 edition, including the World Number 1, Scottie Scheffler, and a total of 68 of the world's top 100 came to Scottsdale. This makes it clearly the strongest field in golf so far in 2026, and in 2025 it ended up being rated as the 7th strongest field in the whole world of golf, behind only the Four Majors, The Players Championship and the Genesis Scottish Open.

It is clearly attracting a strong field, which is an understatement. But if the PGA TOUR are looking to create a schedule which features 20 equally strong fields featuring the best golfers in the world, will the 32 players ranked inside the top 100 which skipped it this year show up in 2027? To start with, Patrick Reed (ranked 25th before his win in Qatar) will likely be back on the TOUR next year via a top 10 finish on the Race to Dubai, but Tyrrell Hatton (25th), Bryson DeChambeau (33rd), Thomas Detry (63rd), Jon Rahm (67th), Laurie Canter (74th), Elvis Smylie (77th), Tom McKibbin (82nd) and David Puig (87th) are members of LIV Golf and, despite their ranking inside the world's top 100 golfers, will not be eligible.

The impact of the incidents at this year's event are yet to be known, will Hideki Matsuyama decide he does not want to play and will the PGA TOUR decide that event does its reputation more damage than good? So, what if the PGA TOUR decides that the WM Phoenix Open is just too much of a liability, and does not fit with their vision for the future?

Currently the PGA TOUR owns the course which hosts the WM Phoenix Open, indeed, they built it from scratch as just the second course in the Tournament Players Club network, which also includes TPC Sawgrass. But the tournament is owned by the Thunderbirds, and it is they who have made this event the massive success it has been until this point. If the WM Phoenix Open was to be culled from the PGA TOUR schedule then it might present the Thunderbirds with a choice, either just pack and and forget the event they have run for the last 90 years, or take their event elsewhere.

If they were take their event elsewhere then they would either need to find a new venue, or make an offer to the PGA TOUR to buy TPC Scottsdale. The venue and the tournament go hand in hand, and since 1987 the event has exploded in popularity. If the PGA TOUR cull the Phoenix Open it would seem unlikely they will stage an alternate event in Arizona, so why continue to operate a TPC course there? If the Thunderbirds purchased TPC Scottsdale they would then be able to stage the Phoenix Open on a different platform.

And which platform you ask?

LIV Golf.

Sacre bleu! I hear you cry. Why not? If the Phoenix Open is not deemed worthy of a new PGA TOUR framework then why shouldn't another tour take it on? It has every aspect which LIV Golf has been trying to lean into on a global scale. Large and passionate fanbase, youth and vibrance, and an off-course music scene which fits perfectly with LIV Golf's vision for a mix of entertainment and golf.

LIV Golf Adelaide is effectively the Phoenix Open on the global stage, and South Africa is set to follow suit. LIV Golf could slightly amend the structure of their events to include 72 golfers (the maximum for a shotgun start) and add open qualifying for each event, along with year-long pathways to the league and teams through the Asian Tour and other alliances with tours in the sport. This would mean potentially that the event could retain its Open status, but becoming known as LIV Golf Phoenix. This would actually restore qualifying to the Phoenix Open, after it ceased to exist in 2025.

LIV Golf's shotgun start would also condense play into a smaller window and therefore reduce the likelihood of fans getting abusive due to the influence of alcohol.

Is this pie in the sky stuff? Probably.

I just cannot see how the Phoenix Open fits into a PGA TOUR schedule which begins in the week following the Super Bowl, with the two major California stops preceding the Florida Swing and the Texas events before The Masters. I also think that whilst I have no doubt the event would still attract huge crowds under the LIV Golf banner, there are many who will, for political and moral reasons not attend the event if it is part of LIV Golf.

A reduction in crowd size would not be such a bad thing, as right now it is getting out of control.

SHANK, by Matt Hooper