Even With Aggressive Mask Enforcement Waste Management Open Is Success

Why did I ever doubt the Thunderbirds?

The Arizona Republic’s Jose Romero on a successful return to sizeable galleries, a good test run that could have gone so wrong for other upcoming tournaments.

Despite the undoubtedly different feel to the 2021 Phoenix Open, it was still the most-attended PGA Tour event in almost a year, with several thousand fans allowed to on the course daily. 

"There's always silver linings in everything," Jenkins said. "This just made us better at running this tournament. We had to look at different ways of being creative and just look at our expenses. It's easy to deal with your partners when times are good.

"We really relied upon our partners, our vendors, as well as the (PGA) Tour and the city of Scottsdale."

For Jenkins, seeing fans pay attention to washing hands, wearing masks and watching their distance was what stood out. If there was any doubt, he said, it was whether fans and officials would abide by protocols, and if enforcing those would be problematic.

The prospect of 5000 at TPC Scottsdale—generally the type of people you fear will plop down next to you—seemed a disaster waiting to happen. But at least on television and based on the accounts of those on the ground, the Thunderbirds were aggressively enforcing mask wearing and a good time was still had by all. Hospitality areas looked well ventilated and other than the Mashed Potato types screaming out, the event felt good to watch. Helped that the golf was fascinating down the stretch, too.