TPC Scottsdale, the host course of this week’s PGA Tour stop for the Waste Management Phoenix Open, has a long history of wild moments.
Who can forget the hole-in-one made by a 21-year-old Tiger Woods in 1997 that triggered a beer-can frenzy on the famous 16th hole?
There have also been streakers, flying oranges and of course, throngs of fans, many of them there to actually watch golf.
But there are two moments in particular that stand out among the rest because both have been elevated to plaque status at the course: The first par-4 ace and the loose impediment.
The first par-4 ace
The first-ever hole-in-one on a par 4 in PGA Tour history happened at TPC Scottsdale.
Andrew Magee did it in 2001 on the 17th hole, a driveable par-4 which on that day measured 332 yards.
Magee decided to tee off with the group in front still on the green. Magee’s ball actually glanced off the putter of Curt Byrum before going in the hole.
That tidbit is not on the plaque, but the ace has been forever memorialized.
‘Loose impediment’
Two years prior, one of the strangest rulings on Tour occurred at TPC Scottsdale.
Woods was on the par-5 13th hole when his drive ended up behind a giant boulder that was definitely not the size of a small boulder.
But rules officials deemed it to be a loose impediment.
With the help of a dozen or so golf fans, this loose impediment was moved out of Tiger’s way. He then blasted out and went on to make birdie, part of a final-round 68 in 1999.
And of course that has also been honored on a plaque, which sits in the transition area. If you ever play the course, you have to kind of look for it, but it’s there, next to that one-ton boulder.
