The People’s Open took itself a little too literally on Sunday at TPC Scottsdale.
Hideki Matsuyama had to back off two shots on the 18th hole because of audible noises from the crowd, once in regulation and again in a playoff, before ultimately losing his bid for a third WM Phoenix Open title to a walk-off birdie by Chris Gotterup.
The first crowd interference of Matsuyama came as he stood over a 25-foot par save that would’ve won him the tournament outright. The loud scream prompted Matsuyama to step away and look back in displeasure, and after other people in the crowd could be heard shaming the culprit, Matsuyama stepped back in and missed right. Moments later, back on the tee box, Matsuyama had started his downswing when a crash was heard in the gallery. It’s unknown if the noise was intentional or not; Gotterup later said he thought it was a chair falling.
Amazingly, Matsuyama was able to stop his swing, but when he swung again, he yanked his drive badly into the lake.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing, shock,” Matsuyama told reporters afterward through his interpreter.
Matsuyama’s driving, of course, didn’t help matters.
That was the story of Matsuyama’s Sunday. The evening before, as he sat atop the leaderboard by a shot, Matsuyama was asked about his affinity for TPC Scottsdale, to which he responded, “I like this course because even if I miss a fairway, I can still find my ball. Unless it’s in the cactuses.” He put that love to the test, flirting with disaster all day by not finding a fairway until the 14th hole and hitting only two in 15 swings – and by just inches both times.
Only three players who made the cut drove it worse than Matsuyama this week, yet despite his waywardness, he remained faithful to the driver. He pulled it on the 348-yard, 17th hole and proceeded to find the toe, nearly sending the shot into the water that guards the left side of the green. Somehow, Matsuyama’s ball stayed on the fringe and he avoided bogey for the 17th time in his final round.
But Matsuyama’s fortune would soon turn. His final drive of regulation found the church pews left of the fairway, and though he had a decent lie in the sand and only 123 yards to the hole, Matsuyama didn’t come close to clearing one of the pews. He then wedged onto the green to give himself a chance at an improbable bogey-free round.
“Was grinding all weekend,” Matsuyama said. “Didn’t have my best stuff, but hung in there. I wanted to avoid the playoff as much as I could, but I just hit a bad tee shot there in regulation at 18, and Chris made a good putt there in the playoff, so hats off to him.”
Matsuyama wasn’t asked about the unruly fan(s).
Gotterup was asked, though he likely was unaware of the yelling fan, as he was already warming up for a potential playoff.
“You know, it’s a good thing that there’s so many people,” Gotterup said. “You hear it, but you have so much going through your brain, it’s almost like white noise. Obviously, I think on the tee box a chair fell. Of course that happens in the playoff. But it’s just a crazy atmosphere, and you just have to embrace it this week, and I felt like I did a good job of that. Let alone trying to win a tournament and then also having people line the fairways, it just makes it that much more difficult.
“But I felt like I was focused on what I was doing.”
While the PGA Tour, WM Phoenix Open officials and players have long embraced this tournament’s rowdy reputation, major changes were made after the 2024 edition broke contain, with scenes of public drunkenness, fights, heckling of players and even a spectator falling from the grandstands at the par-3 16th hole.
“This tournament has been inappropriate and crossed the line since I’ve been on tour and this is my 21st year,” Zach Johnson told the Arizona Republic that year. “I don’t know what the line is, but you have people falling out of the rafters, you have fights in the stands. … It’s to the point where now, how do you reel it in? Because it’s taken on a life of its own.”
The People’s Open couldn’t keep some people at bay forever. Two days before Matsuyama’s incidents, a popular streamer filmed himself paying a fan $100 to shout a profanity in Mackenzie Hughes’ backswing at No. 18. Luckily, Hughes was only going through his pre-shot waggle, but both the streamer and the fan were kicked out and trespassed.
The PGA Tour later told The Athletic in a statement, “The PGA Tour and The Thunderbirds are committed to protecting the integrity of the competition and providing an exceptional experience for all fans. Disruptive fan behavior will not be tolerated, and anyone violating the Fan Code of Conduct is subject to immediate ejection.”
Any ejections Sunday evening wouldn’t have done Matsuyama much good. His tournament was already over, perhaps later than it should’ve been considering how he drove the ball.
“Learn from it,” Matsuyama said, “and just get back up on the horse next week.”
The tighter confines of Pebble Beach should be a little quieter at least.