Earlier this month I visited the state of Arizona for the very first time.

 

Specifically, my home base (a.k.a. my Air BnB) was in the Glendale area of Phoenix, a short five minute drive to Gila River Arena, home of the NHL Coyotes. This was a good thing because I ended up taking in three "Yotes" games - each time in the lower bowl with a great seat for $80 (U.S.) or less to see the Kings, Blackhawks and Oilers.

 

And although I was quite far from home, the presence of my hometown 519 turf never seemed far away.

 

For example, I spent my first full day in town attending the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament in Scottsdale - a bucket list item for me and apparently many others as I soon discovered.

 

This tournament has evolved into one of the most popular events on the PGA Tour, due in large part to the rowdy and raucous nature of the fans on the par 3 sixteenth hole - a place where traditional golf etiquette and decorum has gone to die.

 

The hole is completely enclosed in stadium fashion and at capacity holds 20,000 fans…as in fan-a-tics.

 

Even on Thursday, the first day of the tournament, there was a lengthy line waiting to board the shuttle bus to the main gate - and at that point, the sun was just beginning to rise!

 

A father and son (the father was my age) from Calgary stood in line ahead of me wearing matching bright red, maple leaf-adorned, proud-to-be-Canadian pants. Engaging in conversation was a no brainer.

 

Turned out the dad was originally from Kitchener, attended high school at Forest Heights Collegiate and knew a friend of mine quite well.

 

Also turned out that this was just the first of many "small world" 519 moments during my eight day stay.

 

Whenever I watch live golf (last year was the Honda Classic in Florida), my strategy has always been to spend half the day exploring the golf course and then hunker down at one particular hole to eat, drink, give my knees a break and watch a slew of players play on through.

 

In this case, knowing that the soon-to-be-suds-soaked 16th (say that 3X fast!) would get more and more crowded as the day went on, I parked myself there first.

 

Keep in mind that I was traveling on my own making it impossible to hold onto a seat for the inevitable snack or washroom breaks that lay ahead.

 

There is no question that the Waste Management tournament has become a "bucket list" destination for many people, especially bachelor parties.

 

On my flight to Phoenix, I sat beside a twenty-something guy who was part of such a group. Mostly from Toronto, his gang was headed there for a mere four days but would feature playing golf, dinners out, drinks (obvi) and a day spent well-wasted on the infamous par 3 hole that is fast becoming a must see/must experience tourist destination.

 

While in the crowd, I could easily pick out several such broods including one parked just in front of me with nine guys wearing Oilers jerseys - seven of which read "McDavid" on the back. I was not surprised to find out that the core of the group was indeed from Edmonton, including the groom-to-be.

 

In addition to watching a different (and yet similar) group farther down alternate between chugging tall boys and/or pouring them on one another, I witnessed the ever-popular Tony Finau get booed for hitting his short iron just short of the green; watched Justin Thomas play the hole wearing a replica Kobe Bryant high school jersey; and experienced young Cameron Smith chipping in from off the green and then receive an ovation (and beer spray) that would put Trump's QAnon crowd to shame.

 

After lunch, I ventured over to another part of the course to watch (519) Listowel's own Corey Conners play a few holes. I didn't see him birdie any but he played steady golf and finished the day even par.

 

For the tourney, he finished with a T45, a cheque for $23,725 and gave the faithful a huge thrill by almost jarring his ball for an ace on #16 on Saturday.

 

(Side note #1: Conners is currently ranked #65 in the world and is already qualified for this year's Masters)

 

The crowds at the Waste Management get larger and larger as the week goes on. By the time Sunday came, fans wanting to get a spot on the 16th were lined up at 4 a.m. to get a spot. And the traffic which was quite doable on Thursday, only gets more and more dense.

 

For these and other reasons, I only went on opening day. My ticket was a very reasonable $45 (U.S.) with free parking (a pleasant surprise). Even the cost of my hot dog/Diet Coke/bag of chips lunch was digestable enough to put Toronto sporting events to shame.

 

 

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I had a few more 519 experiences while attending those Arizona Coyotes hockey games.

 

The first one came when I did an impromptu pop-over to see them host the Los Angeles Kings on the evening of my Waste Management day.

($60 to sit 14 rows from the ice if you're wondering - and from the box office just prior to game time, no less).

 

Walking around during first period intermission taking in the sights, sounds and smells, I came across a group of guys dressed in full RCMP red. There were four of them - two from the Toronto area and two from Guelph.

(insert "small world" comment here)

 

Fortunately none of them were driving (Yes - I asked).

 

Can you guess why they were dressed that way and where they were planning to spend the next day?

(see above for relevant clues)

 

My favourite part was later seeing all eight together - seven Mounties doing their best Dudley Do-Right impersonations (I loved Rocky and Bullwinkle as a kid) plus a felonious future groom dressed in full black-and-white striped prison garb.

 

(Side note #2: I remember - barely - when my bachelor party was at the old Blue Line Club at the Kitchener Auditorium and featured 50-50 tickets for a 40-pounder of Crown Royal, cold cuts from the J.M. Schneiders employee market - where many of us had summer jobs - and a Crown & Anchor wheel.

Our stags never involved an airplane although one time, we did put one of our drunk buddies on a train to Montreal. But I digress...)

 

At my second Yotes game, there was a Toronto Maple Leafs fan sitting in front of me.

 

I could tell he was a Leafs fan by the glassy look in his eyes. That and the fact that he was wearing an autographed Wendell Clark jersey. (Not much gets by me.)

 

As per usual, I assumed he would enjoy meeting me so I tapped him on the shoulder and started a conversation. My opener was that Clark had once sat behind me at a Blue Jays game and I got his autograph on my ticket stub.

 

He found this mildly interesting.

 

I told him a few more tales about my brushes with well-known athletes but I had to cut it short when his eyes got even glassier.

 

Not sure why.

 

What I found kinda cool was that he was from Cambridge, worked in downtown Kitchener and seemed to be the only male in the greater Phoenix area NOT going to the Waste Management tournament while in town.

 

Loser.

 

My third hockey game featured the best player on the planet - the aforementioned Connor McDavid - and once again I purchased my ticket at the box office an hour before game time. It cost me $80 to sit 23 rows from the ice and the game appeared to be a sellout.

(The face value for a similar seat in Toronto would be $357,000, give or take)

 

To my surprise, one of the referees that night was Elmira's own Garrett Rank - someone I had interviewed and written about previously.

 

As if Rank isn't impressive enough as a professional referee, Canadian mid-amateur golf champion and cancer survivor, he is also cerebral, articulate and has a friendly demeanour about him.

 

When I wasn't focusing on McDavid or Leon Draisaitl on the ice, I was watching Rank do his stuff.

 

As a high level basketball official myself (wink, wink), I have a real appreciation for the role we unsung heroes have to play.

 

Let me just say this - next time you're at a live NHL game, take some time to follow one of the referees and you'll have a new appreciation for just how difficult the job is and how skilled they are on skates.

 

Rank texted me back the following morning before heading out to - (you guessed it) - go golfing.

 

I told him how impressed I was with his ability to keep up with the likes of McDavid.

 

In typically modest Rank fashion, he said "I was just trying to stay out of the way."

 

Funny - that's how I feel when I'm reffing basketball.