Every other stop on the PGA Tour asks for silence. This one hands you a beer and points you at a par-3 wrapped in three stories of grandstands. The WM Phoenix Open is a real tour event with real stakes, and it’s also the best-attended golf tournament in the world — hundreds of thousands of people over one February week, funneled into a single course in North Scottsdale.
Despite the name, it hasn’t been played in Phoenix since 1986. It moved to TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course in 1987, onto ground Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish shaped for crowds as much as for golf. Here’s how we do it without losing a day, a friend, or a phone.
Pick your day
This is the only decision that really matters.
- Monday and Tuesday are practice rounds. Cheap, calm, and the easiest way to see players up close.
- Wednesday is the pro-am. Golf plus celebrities, and a gentle preview of what the stadium sounds like.
- Thursday is our day. Real tournament golf, the 16th loud but not feral, no gate crush, and you can actually see the shots.
- Friday is the pivot. By afternoon the crowd has decided what kind of day it’s having.
- Saturday is a festival with a golf problem. A lot of the crowd never sees a shot, and that’s the plan.
- Sunday mellows out and delivers the actual finish.
Tournament week usually lands in early February and often ends on Super Bowl Sunday, which is why every bar in town is at capacity. Dates, ticket tiers, and prices change every year; buy from the official site, not a reseller.
Getting there without a car
There’s essentially no public parking at the course. Plan accordingly, and don’t be the person circling Hayden Road at 9:00 AM.
- The official shuttle lots. WestWorld has long been the main park-and-ride. Park, ride, done.
- Rideshare to the designated drop zones near Hayden and Bell. They move year to year; check before you leave. On the way out, walk to the far edge of the pickup zone. Ten extra minutes on foot beats forty in surge-priced gridlock.
- Bike in. The tournament has run a free bike valet, and it’s the most underrated move in Scottsdale.
The same corner of the city hosts Barrett-Jackson a couple of weeks earlier and the Arabian Horse Show soon after, and the Sports Complex down the road has its own tournament traffic. If you’re driving anywhere near Princess Drive that week for any reason, come in from Hayden and add twenty minutes.
The 16th hole, decoded
It’s a short par-3 that would be forgettable anywhere else. Surrounded by grandstands and skyboxes holding roughly 20,000 people, it’s the loudest hole in golf.
- General-admission seats fill early on Friday and Saturday. People run from the gates at opening. It’s a whole genre of local video.
- The etiquette is inverted. Cheer the good shots, boo the bad ones. Players who play along become legends; players who don’t hear about it.
- An ace here is a public event. Tiger Woods’s ace in 1997 made the hole famous. When it happens, drinks go airborne. Wear a hat you don’t love.
Where else to stand
The 16th is the brand, but the rest of the course is the golf. The Stadium Course was built on mounds and amphitheaters so crowds can actually see, and the finishing stretch — the par-5 15th, the short 17th, and the big bowl around 18 — is where tournaments get decided. On a weekday, pick a spot on the back nine, sit down, and let the groups come to you. You’ll see more golf in an hour than a Saturday crowd sees all day.
If the course makes you want to play it, you can: our golf note covers booking TPC Scottsdale and the rest of the public-access courses.
What to wear
February in Scottsdale runs roughly 45°F at dawn to the 70s by early afternoon. You will be outside for all of it.
- Layers you can tie around your waist. A jacket you have to carry all day becomes a burden by noon.
- Shoes you can walk miles in, on grass, dirt, and hills. The people in new white loafers are easy to spot by 1:00 PM.
- A brimmed hat and sunscreen. It’s winter; the Sonoran sun doesn’t care. The gear page has the sunscreen we’d hand anyone at the gate.
- A card, not cash. The tournament went cashless years ago.
- Check the bag policy on the official site before you leave the hotel, and assume it’s strict.
The Saturday protocol
If you must, and you may, do it right.
- Arrive at gate opening. The difference between an early and a late arrival is about ninety minutes of your life in lines.
- Set a meeting point before you walk in. Cell service near the 16th collapses by midday.
- Eat before 11:00 AM or after 2:00 PM. In between, the lines are the event.
- Drink water between drinks. The February sun still does damage.
- Know your exit. Decide how you’re leaving before you arrive.
The 2024 Saturday — wet, oversold, gates closed, alcohol sales paused — made national news and pushed real crowd-control changes afterward. It’s better now. It’s still Saturday.
Where to eat and sleep
The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess sits beside the course and has been the tournament’s hotel since the Open moved here in 1987. Book a year out and expect peak-of-peak rates. Bourbon Steak and La Hacienda inside the resort are the unofficial clubhouse; book weeks ahead or don’t bother. If you’re staying anywhere else, Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers is the sports-bar fallback.
The part that makes it worth it
The Thunderbirds, the Phoenix civic group in the feathered regalia, have run this tournament since 1939, and it has pushed well over $200 million to Arizona charities. That’s why the city puts up with a week of North Scottsdale gridlock. Go on a Thursday, stand on the back nine in the morning sun, and watch the best players in the world hit shots twenty feet from you. Then go see the 16th, once, so you can say you did.