What’s less subjective, however, is the notion that the atmosphere and behaviour on display at the hole every year is somehow a way of attracting people to the game.

If that is true, as is often posited by those who like the ‘party hole’, then it’s false advertising.

In reality, the sort of behaviour we see at the ‘stadium’ hole every year would be considered completely unacceptable at almost every golf course in the world and any golfer engaging in said behaviour would likely be asked to leave.

One can argue whether that is a good or bad thing but that’s a matter of opinion. That it is the truth is beyond question.

"Don’t try to sell the idea that it is a tool to grow interest or participation in the game because those arguments simply don’t hold water … or discarded beer." - Rod Morri.

At its core, what this argument is really about is not whether what people get up to in Phoenix one week a year is acceptable.

It’s about golf’s image among non-golfers and in the Venn diagram of golf fans, I suspect almost all of us overlap on this part.

My instinct is we pretty much all agree that what non golfers think about the game is, for the most part, wrong. What we perhaps disagree on is how to tackle that problem.

While there are those who feel the solution is what we see each year in Phoenix I am not in that camp and not only because it’s not my cup of tea.

I think the whole party idea misrepresents golf and what makes the game fun.

To me, fun in golf is hitting a flush shot and watching the ball soar. Fun is making a long putt or holing out from a bunker or elsewhere off the green.

Fun is ribbing your mates when things go wrong and giving them a shout when it goes right. It’s playing new and different courses and arguing the merits of one hole over another.

What we see at Phoenix has nothing to do with any of that.

Drinking in a large crowd and throwing beer cans on the green when a player has an ace may be one type of fun but it is not what I – or I suspect most other golfers – think of when we think about golf.

As far as I can tell what happens at Phoenix really has nothing to do with golf and everything to do with crowd behaviour.

Replace the golf with wrestling or football and it seems unlikely anything would change.

The simple solution for those of us who don’t like the Phoenix vibe is to not watch it.

For those who do, go ahead and immerse yourself in it.

But don’t try to sell the idea that it is a tool to grow interest or participation in the game because those arguments simply don’t hold water … or discarded beer.