Imago
Composition of silhouette of male golf player over landscape and pink sky with copy space. sport and competition concept digitally generated image. Copyright: xx 1451967 VectorFusionArt/Imago
Imago
Composition of silhouette of male golf player over landscape and pink sky with copy space. sport and competition concept digitally generated image. Copyright: xx 1451967 VectorFusionArt/Imago
Boos, beer showers, and some other heckles still linger in Pat Perez’s memory at TPC Scottsdale. The “golf’s loudest party” got a little bit louder for the ex-LIV golfer. Years after clashing with WM Phoenix Open hecklers, the former LIV Golf pro is looking back at a moment fueled by frustration that he now views very differently. While he would have enjoyed all the heckles now, there’s one particular one that got him furious, and he regrets it.
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“So that guy, they were yelling at me from up there. And he goes, ‘We got a shirt. We got a shirt.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t care.’ And they throw this shirt down, and it’s me slamming my club at Pebble. Looking back at it now, I would take it. I’m actually upset because now I would have kept it. I actually would have put it on. See, but I was in a different zone at that point. And I mean, I got pissed. I was pissed. I ripped it. Probably bad play, but I should have kept it. Today, I would wear it,” Pat Perez revealed in a conversation on Golf’s Subpar episode.
Perez debuted in 2002 and has played the WM Phoenix Open multiple times. However, it took him nine years to make a cut at the event. But after all those years, he finally made the cut. Therefore, he was too focused on his game.
Notably, a group of fans was creating some distractions. They had a T-shirt featuring his 2003 Pebble Beach meltdown, in which he slammed an old steelhead club on the 18th green. One fan threw the T-shirt at him. And since Pat Perez was pissed, he tore it.
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The ex-LIV golfer admitted that the heckle he used to face was nothing compared to what athletes have to face today.
“It’s something, the first year I played was 02, and it wasn’t anywhere near what it is today,” he admitted. “I don’t think I enjoy as much as I should have. I should have looked at it a little differently cuz I’m trying to, I’ve had so many Fridays where I’m trying to make the cut, and you go through 15, 16, 17, they’re yelling at you, and they’re all this.”
Heckling at the WM Phoenix Open, especially on the par-3 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, has intensified dramatically since 2002. In the early 2000s, the event was lively but far tamer. It featured smaller crowds and basic grandstands. By the 2010s, the 16th expanded into a coliseum. It added skyboxes and featured 20,000+ fans. Thus, the environment shifted to boisterous boos for poor shots and roars for good ones.
Golfers like John Daly engaged crowds positively. Post-2020, alcohol-fueled antics exploded. Beer cups became projectiles thrown at golfers, fans started fighting among themselves, and some even fell from stands. The 2024 edition saw gates closed, beer sales halted amid mud-crowded chaos, and 200k+ fans on Saturday.
Many times, these heckles led to outbursts from golfers, including Pat Perez. However, he is not the only one.
Golfers having an outburst at hecklers at the WM Phoenix Open
Several golfers have snapped at hecklers during the WM Phoenix Open. Many of these came amid the rowdy 16th hole and surrounding chaos at TPC Scottsdale.
On Sunday of the 2024 event, the former Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson exploded at fans on the 15th tee.
“Don’t sir me… somebody said it! I’m just sick of it, just shut up!”
Johnson shouted at fans after ongoing disruptions. He later blasted the crowd at a press conference, calling the behavior unacceptable.
In the same year, Billy Horschel also lost his cool. When his playing partner, Nicolo Galletti, was teeing up, fans were not letting him focus.
“Buddy, when he’s over the shot shut the hell up man! He’s trying to hit a damn golf shot here, it’s our f***ing job!” Horschel said.
Jordan Spieth and Byeong Hun An also weren’t happy with what went down in 2024. While Spieth engaged with the fans on the course, Hun An took it to social media to express his frustration.
Before that, Ian Poulter lost his temper in 2010. Poulter missed a 7-foot birdie on the 16th amid boos and “U-S-A!” chants. He was the runner-up to the American Hunter Mahan at that point. This prompted him to subtly flip off the gallery.
What happened to Pat Perez fits a much larger pattern at TPC Scottsdale. The line between crowd energy and outright disruption has blurred over the years. Scottie Scheffler and others are facing similar heckles this year, too, as Round 2 of the 2026 WM Phoenix Open is about to start.
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