Reminiscences abound on the sixteenth gap at TPC Scottsdale

The sixteenth gap at TPC Scottsdale, as featured this 12 months on the 2024 WM Phoenix Open, is the closest you may get to a golf area. Golfers tee off on the par 3 gap fully surrounded by cheering followers in stadium-style seating, magnifying the strain on each shot. Solely 11 golfers in historical past have made a hole-in-one on the sixteenth, an occasion which inevitably sends spectators into ecstasy. Tiger Woods did so on the 1997 Phoenix Open, and it stays probably the most memorable moments in PGA Tour historical past.

The long-lasting sixteenth gap @WMPhoenixOpen is loud.@TigerWoods making an ace on the sixteenth gap is 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 loud.#TOURVault pic.twitter.com/H8vAh3QlKL

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 3, 2021

With the WM Phoenix Open in full swing, we thought we would have a look again at how a few of golf’s greatest skilled one of many loudest and most fun holes in golf, and see what new recollections opponents are making.

This week’s greatest photographs

🎯 @AaronBadds getting the get together began at TPC Scottsdale. pic.twitter.com/avoDUNfyrj

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 8, 2024

First shot on No. 16 💪@SunDevilMGolf alum @KevinGolfYu is welcomed with cheers in his match debut @WMPhoenixOpen. pic.twitter.com/XmnRphmU1P

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 8, 2024

Reminiscences

“I keep in mind early on, the primary couple of years I performed, there have been guys that had been proper by the tee field.[They] would have like a sheet of like humorous issues about the place you went to highschool or simply sort of like little issues that had been sort of like jabs at you, however I really feel like now they moved the tee field somewhat bit, so you are not like proper there. So, it is somewhat completely different.”

“For me, I chipped in again left pin. I missed the inexperienced left, obtained booed, chipped it in, crowd erupted. So it was like a Jekyll and Hyde second. It was most likely 2017 or so. However I performed with Francesco Molinari when he made the hole-in-one there. I feel it was on Saturday [in 2015]. Entrance left pin. I hit first. I hit it most likely 12 to fifteen toes proper, like an important protected shot. He holes it. Beer cans on the inexperienced, actually felt like we stopped play for like 20 minutes to get every little thing cleared up. And I can not keep in mind who we’re enjoying with, Brian Davis or one thing hit after him, nevertheless it was unbelievable. I imply, even when a enjoying accomplice makes a gap in a single, like, you are so pumped for him simply to see the gang go wild. I imply, I do not assume there’d been a gap in a single there for a few years and he made it and it was it was unimaginable.”

Missed the inexperienced, obtained booed, chipped in [in 2015 or 2016]. That was enjoyable. I used to be there when Sam Ryder made the outlet in a single a few years in the past. That was fairly wild. Aside from that it has been fairly customary, customary stuff, man. It is gotten somewhat extra tame over time. It is gotten somewhat extra company in there in direction of the tee field nevertheless it used to only be absolute insanity proper there by the tee field however they introduced the packing containers down somewhat bit, so it is gotten somewhat tamer. It is nonetheless nuts up by the inexperienced although.”

“I got here just about yearly once I was in school. Then I got here to observe CT Pan fairly a bit. It was loopy again then. I believed it was loopy simply seeing all of the individuals yelling at it, and folks — while you play golf, individuals really feel like you need to be quiet and every little thing, however 16 is unquestionably the other. They attempt to get louder and louder. It is simply sort of wild for the primary time.”

ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss and Paolo Uggetti contributed to this report.