WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

The Phoenix Open was once a golf tourney for the ages. The wild 16th hole. The beautiful (well sometimes) weather. Why the parentheses? Some looked forward to it because it almost always rained at least one day and in a water starved community any rain is welcomed.

It, at least to me, lost a bit of luster when it changed sponsors and names when it went to the FBR Open, completely taking Phoenix out of the name. FBR stands for some bank but since they took over the tourney in 2004, I can't tell you the name other than the initials. They opted out and left the Thunderbirds looking for a sponsor of the most well attended PGA golf event in the country. Now who the Thunderbirds are is another story, one that I'm not familiar with. Except to say that they raise a lot of money for charity. Thirty-eight million in the last half decade according to the AZ Repub.

But Waste Management? Oh they re-added Phoenix to the mix. But at what a cost? The Houston-based company is green. There's already an undercurrent for this tournament being about "green on the greens". And who can be against effective waste management?

At the same time, who can be against a lot of things that are generally not mentioned around the old supper table? I also know that sponsorships are tough to come by in this age of the Great Recession. But still.

There will be lots of jokes about it certainly. I wonder if it's going to be a tourney to feature Tiger vs Daly? Tiger's undoubtedly wasted a lot and needs a manager. As for John Daly, he could use some waist management himself.

Come to think of it, if it's truly an open, there would be a lot of us who could qualify on at least one of those grounds.

Ahh, but I long for the day of the FBR. At least they took Phoenix out of it. At least we were anonymous to non-golfers. No longer. And when I tell people I live in the Phoenix area, their thoughts turn to waste. Ugh.