The infamous par-3, 16th at TPC Scottsdale, known as golf’s largest outdoor cocktail party, will be completely enclosed by stadium seating for this year’s FBR Open. The tournament staff added 3,000 bleachers behind the green to ensure that their reputation as the noisiest hole on Tour remains upheld. The additional seating will raise crowd capacity on the 16th, alone, to nearly 20,000 people.
Fans can get as rowdy as they want and won’t have to keep it corporate at the 16th, as the tournament is not selling bleacher seats for company sponsorships. For fans’ viewing pleasure other than the par-3, some of the seats will also provide a view from behind the tee box of the short par-4, 17th.
While the tournament doesn’t want to sell bleacher seats to corporations, they most certainly want to sell the 16th hole as a brand. Much like golf fans know “No. 17” refers to the island green at TPC Sawgrass, home of The Players Championship, Tournament Director John Felix likes to think everyone associates “No. 16” with the par-3 at Scottsdale, and he wants to ensure it stays that way.
As happy as fans are sure to be with the additional seating space, Felix said that the new arrangement around No. 16 also was designed to aid the players. It had been previously difficult for players to walk from the 16th green to the 17th tee, but the new tunnel built for this year’s event will make their transition a much smoother one.
While the new seating configuration will relieve players the stress of getting from green to tee, it will most certainly revive the fans’ spirit and cheer at this winter’s golf party extraordinaire event.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment