Photo Essay: The Emiliano Grillo Hole on the 16th Hole stuns 2025 WM Phoenix Open crowd-cronkite news

Scottsdale – 16th hole in TPC Scottsdale during WM Phoenix Open is always a special place. Developing over a 38-year history of the course, the strongest golf hole has become one of the biggest glasses in the game. With up to 20,000 fans around the hole, a hole in one to 16 is an element of the bucket list for each professional golf.

In the second round on Friday, I stood among the few photographers of the triple box for the only hole in the tournament in 2025, as Argentine golfer Emiliano Grillo sank into his ace. His historic shot sailed without touching the ground and in the glass.

Due to the nature of the shot, the normal accumulation of expectation, as the ball is monitored to the hole completely absent. Grillo and all viewers near the Troika Box had no idea that the ball entered while the fans who look from the green did not go ballistic. Beer shower also rains down the celebration course.

Without expectations. No increasing expectation. No one paid attention to a group without star golfers, but the reaction lived to the nickname of the 16th hole.

My back was already out, and the shock of the shot finally came out, Grilo jumped into the arms of playing partner Rafael Campos, and later in the arms of Kady James Baker to celebrate a surreal moment.

“The plan was to do, obviously,” Grillo said. “You always dream of making a hole in one there, so every time you step there, you try to do it.”

Grillo’s dream came true, becoming the 12th ace of the 16th in the history of the tournament. His name will forever be embedded in the statue next to the entrance of the hole.

As the beer was raining with glasses that were thrown into the air, volunteers with garbage bags flooded the field, quickly trying to raise the garbage.

The shot was not just a crazy moment, but for Grillo was a decisive moment. The shot took him from 1 to 3 to 3-on, safely inside the 2-Pod cutting tournament to get a game over the weekend.

The weekend, however, did not turn out as good as Friday for Grillo, who shot 2 over 73 years on Saturday and 4th 75 on Sunday to finish the tournament on the 4th and place the 76th as a whole.