WMPO BIRD’S EYE VIEW STATS DATE/TIME: Monday, February 1- Known as “The Greatest Show on Grass,” WMPO is the largest professional golf Sunday, February 7; gates open at 7 a.m. WASTE MANAGEMENT tournament on the PGA Tour (2020 attendance: 700,000-plus). If you plan to be COST: General admission tickets PHOENIX OPEN one of the estimated 8,000 daily spectators at the “scaled-down” 2021 tournament, were TBD at press time; children consult this tournament map, including our picks for the five best viewing spots. 17 and younger get in for free when accompanied by an adult FIELD INFO: wmphoenixopen.com Spot No. 2: A hill left of the par-3 Spot No. 1: 4th provides an elevated GUIDE BEST SPOTS The 13th green may be view of a green that’s = 5 seen eight holes-in-one TO WATCH THE Even in the midst of a global the farthest point from the GOLF clubhouse, but it offers – second-most behind 2021pandemic, the Greatest Show on the 16th (nine). Spot No. 5: some of the best birdie- On Thursday and Friday, Grass must go on. Find player watching: 175 were sunk take a seat on the grass profiles, ticket tips and more in here in 2018. N above the 9th green this special COVID-19 edition of to catch half the field our annual guide to the world’s W E 1 finishing their rounds. most-attended PGA golf 4 tournament. S 7 3 13 5 BY TOM MACKIN 2 The infamous 6 8 16th hole. 2021 9 18 11 layout includes a wrap-around viewing Food and platform. drinks galore 14 12 15 at the Fan Zone! 10 Visit Tiger’s 16 Rock, famed for impeding the 17 star’s approach Spot No. 3: Park yourself above PUBLIC shot in 1999. GRAND- the 12th hole to STAND enjoy views of four Spot No. 4: Princess Dr. holes. Stand just right of the P island green on 15 to see who sacks up for a Free public Hayden Rd. potential eagle. Pparking. From the west, parking is at Loop 101 and PRO TIP P Hayden Road. If you want to maximize your chances of getting an autograph from Bell Rd. your favorite pro or celeb player, come to Pro-Am Day on Wednesday. Past celebrity invitees include sports legends Larry Fitzgerald and Shane Doan, plus country superstar Dierks Bentley. MAIN ENTRANCE WMPO LEADERBOARDLEADERBOARD The Open was A The tournament A Previously A Over five days in A According to the A Defending champion Webb Simpson will A Two golfers share founded in 1932 as moved in 1987 to title-sponsored 2020, more than Arizona State attempt to become the sixth golfer to win tournament record the Arizona Open. its current home, by brokerage 700,000 ticketed University W.P. consecutive Phoenix Open titles in 2021. scores of -28: The name changed the Stadium firm FBR, the visitors attended Carey School of The others were Ben Hogan (1946-1947), Mark Calcavecchia to the Phoenix Course at tournament has the Open, making it Business, the Open Jimmy Demaret (1949-1950), Arnold Palmer (2001) and Phil Open in 1935. It’s TPC Scottsdale. been affiliated the most-attended pumps roughly (1961-1963), Johnny Miller (1974-1975) and Mickelson (2013). the fifth-oldest with Waste golf tournament in $400 million into Hideki Matsuyama (2016-2017). tournament on the Management the world. Arizona’s econony PGA Tour. since 2010. That annually. sponsorship deal PHOTO COURTESY WMPO expires in 2025. 140 PHOENIX A JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021 PHOENIXMAG.COM 141 HOME FAIRWAY MISSING WMPO SPOTLIGHT: PERSONS With fewer spectators allowed at this year’s Waste Management Phoenix SCOTT JENKINS ADVANTAGEADVANTAGE Open – thanks a lot, COVID-19! – CRISIS CHAIRMAN From the Arizona State University campus to TPC Scottsdale, it’s a mere 20-mile drive on the 101 – and more than a few former Sun Devil golfers have made it a very profitable journey. We rank the school’s top several well-known species of fan may be absent from the TPC Scottsdale. performers at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. BY Which will miss it the most? Here are TOM MACKIN our top five candidates. Baseball, not golf, was the sport Phoenix schoolboy Scott Jenkins played at St. Mary’s Catholic High School. But he was near the tee on the par-3 16th hole THE GOLF DUDE at the 1997 Waste Management Phoenix Open when Tiger Woods made an Comes to the TPC dressed in full electrifying hole-in-one that raised the tournament – and its decibel levels – to new heights. It remains the loudest roar he has ever heard at a sporting event, gear from head-to-toe every year, the 43-year-old attorney and father of two maintains. Sadly, Jenkins has little always at the ready to step in just chance of matching that level of exultation at the 2021 Phoenix Open, as his in case a PGA Tour pro sees him in one-year term as Tournament Chairman coincides with a global pandemic. But the crowd, decides to retire on the that doesn’t mean Jenkins – a partner at Valley law firm Quarles & Brady and spot, hands over his clubs, and tells active Thunderbird since 2015 – is laying up. him: “You take it from here.” It’s sort of like the famous Coke commercial When did you realize just how dif- [also] been an opportunity to re-imagine with Mean Joe Green, but for ferent the 2021 Waste Management the tournament and get creative with dif- Phoenix Open would need to be? middle-age dads. ferent strategies and concepts that – while On March 11, I was flying back home from we won’t eclipse the more than $14 million EMPTY NESTER The Players Championship [at TPC Saw- raised last year – will help us try and get as PHIL MICKELSON BILLY MAYFAIR CHEZ REAVIE Golf? What golf? This guy/gal comes grass in Florida] with our tournament lead- close as we can to that amount. CLASS OF 1992 CLASS OF 1988 CLASS OF 2004 solely for the mad beats and pickup ership team and we saw announcement after announcement with pretty much How has the pandemic affected The Sun Devil King captured 16 titles as an This Phoenix native left ASU with eight wins The Mesa native came oh-so-close to win- potential in the massive after-hours ticketholders and suite holders? undergrad and continued his winning ways and subsequently became a perennial ning in 2018, losing to Gary Woodland on every sports league in the country, if not tent known as the Birds Nest. A We asked them to sort of roll with us. That on the PGA Tour, including five major titles. presence at TPC Scottsdale, capped off the first playoff hole. He also tied for fourth the world, putting things on hold. We were Spotify playlist will have to serve in meant they could either roll their deposit He won the Phoenix Open in 1996, 2005 with a second-place finish in 1995 after be- place in 2019. Earns an extra fork for being very lucky to have dodged it for the 2020 lieu of the Nest this year. One silver into 2022 or donate it to charity. I’m happy and 2013, and finished second in 2008. ing edged out by Vijay Singh in a playoff. He a standard bearer during the tournament WMPO, but it became really apparent that to report that 90-plus percent have done TOURNAMENT EARNINGS: $4,198,677 also carded Top 10 finishes in 1990 (T5), while he was a student at Dobson High lining: No long lines for a post- we would be dealing with it for 2021. concert Uber. either of those things. (31 appearances) 2000 (T10) and 2007 (fifth). Earns an extra School. In a year with so many things out fork for playing in four different decades. TOURNAMENT EARNINGS: $1,090,379 WORK-SKIPPER of control, what can you control as You’ve worked on complex cases as TOURNAMENT EARNINGS: $697,985 (12 appearances) Tournament Chairman? a lawyer. But has your role as Tour- (25 appearances) “Hey boss, meeting an important Just being positive. There are some things nament Chairman been even more client so will be out of the office this completely outside of my control, but you challenging? Thursday and Friday afternoon.” can control your attitude. Being in this I pride myself in my practice to being a prob- What they’re really doing: pounding position requires working with the Thun- lem solver, and what I’ve found is that this bottomless beers/cocktails with derbirds staff, so we just go to work every is the biggest problem I have ever had to the bros/besties who snagged a day and work as hard as we can to be in deal with. It’s been rewarding in that I could Clubhouse pass – or better yet, a the best possible position to succeed, use different skills that I don’t normally use sweet suite on the 16th hole. Not whatever the environment we’re in come in my day job. My mentality is never get too high or too low. Just roll with the punches. this year. Back to the cubicle, bub. February 1 when the tournament starts. What kind of impact will COVID-19 Your father and one of your younger THE SPRINTER have on money being raised for char- brothers are the golfers in your fam- Normally, this Open animal would line ity? ily. Do they have to address you as up in the chilly pre-dawn hours on Our top priorities are the health and safety Mr.