by Greg Moore, USA TODAY Network

Reigning Waste Management Phoenix Open champion Gary Woodland said Wednesday that Amy Bockerstette’s par on 16 was “by far the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced. … I’ve never rooted so hard for somebody on a golf course.”

Woodland, during a practice round a day earlier, helped the PGA Tour and the Special Olympics surprise Bockerstette with a chance to play TPC Scottsdale’s signature hole and a resulting PGA-produced video has gone viral.

“It feels amazing,” Bockerstette told azcentral sports after sinking an 8-foot putt to get up and down on the par 3 with a sandie.

If she seemed surprisingly poised, it could be that she’s used to attention on the course.

She became the first person with Down syndrome to receive a college athletics scholarship when she signed with Paradise Valley Community College last year. And she was the first Arizona student with Down syndrome to compete in the state high school playoffs, as a junior at Phoenix Sandra Day O’Connor.

But 16 at the Phoenix Open is something else.

Still, Bockerstette didn’t blink.

“She’s a gamer,” her father, Joe Bockerstette, said. “… She doesn’t get nervous; she gets excited.”

Joe Bockerstette went through the sequence in detail, the way only a sports parent can.

“We knew a 120-yard shot was a sweet spot for her,” he said. “So we gave her one of her top clubs … We had a good feeling that she’d hit a good tee shot.”

She put it in the bunker.

Woodland offered to take it out, but she wanted to play it.

“She said, ‘No, I’ve got this,’” he said. “She was right.”

Still, her dad was worried.

“The bunker shot made me a little nervous,” Joe Bockerstette said. “That’s tough, and this sand tends to be fluffier than you would normally see.”

She took no time over the ball. She just walked up and smacked it to within a few feet.

“After that, it’s just like, ‘Man, it’s meant to be,’” Joe Bockerstette said.

She nailed the par putt with a few thousand people watching and cheering.

“I’ve never rooted so hard for something,” Woodland said. “And it went in center cut. It looked good the whole time.”

Jenny Bockerstette, Amy’s mother, had a hard time describing her emotions.

“Overwhelmed,” she said, just after the putt dropped. “Overwhelmed. It was so exciting. What an experience.”