Doug and Wolf Newsmakers Week: Phoenix Open’s Alex Clark

The Waste Management Phoenix Open continues to draw in
golf fans and spectators, breaking attendance records.
This year, the Saturday’s crowd hit 173,210 fans and
518,262 for the entire tournament.

One of the primary spots for fans to gather is at the 16th
hole. There, fans have the liberty to heckle
unsatisfactory hits and cheer for best. It’s rare to have
that atmosphere at other courses, and other tournament
organizers are taking notice.

“We go to a lot of tour meetings, and we get a lot of
tournaments coming to us and asking us ‘How did you create
it?’ ‘How did you start it,'” Alex Clark, chairman of the
Waste Management Phoenix Open, told Arizona Sports 620’s
Doug and Wolf as part of Newsmakers Week. “It was a vision
of a guy that’s in our group to build skyboxes, and it
just grew from there. Obviously, we still have general
admission seating, and we added about 20 percent onto 16
this year, so that’s important to us as well.”

Clark has seen other tournaments add personality to some
holes like the 17th at Sawgrass, which is an island green
concept, and the HP Dallas Bryon Nelson Championship
adding the same style of seating with skyboxes.

“We’re proud of what we’ve done, we’re proud of it and
we’re proud of its success,” Clark said.

Changing the venue: The tournament has been held at
the Tournament Players Club in Scottsdale for the past 25
years, but the question always comes up if it will be the
home for the tournament for the next year.

“There are always rumblings on how we can make it better.
Clearly it was a course that was built in 1987 for the
idea for the fan to watch golf,” Clark said. “If you look
at it, it’s the stadium-type golf course where the hills
are, on either side of the fairway that creates good
viewings. So, we’d have to kind of have that perfect
scenario. Right now we are where we’re at, and I think
we’re pretty happy.”

The difference from other tournaments: The 75
degree weather in February and the vibrant and social
atmosphere of the tournament bring in crowds from not only
the Valley, but other areas of the country.

“We clearly have unbelievable community support. The
corporations, the companies that are based here in the
Valley and the people that visit the Valley, have just
kind of [hooked] on to our event and follow our event and
look forward to it every year,” Clark said. “We’ve got
companies from Atlanta, Minneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles
coming in, buying skyboxes, entertaining their clients
even though they might not have a presence here, but a lot
of local companies, too.”

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