New environmental sponsor for Phoenix Open; Good ink for UgMO

A couple of fun stories in the golf industry today, both involving TPC Scottsdale and our friend superintendent Jeff Plotts.

First, the PGA Tour's Phoenix Open,formerly known as the FBR Open, will now be known as the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Based in Houston, Waste Management is North America's largest environmental service provider.

Waste Management provides waste solutions like practical and sustainable renewable energy alternatives, comprehensive sustainability evaluations and new technologies to recover the resource in waste. Their core business is the collection, transportation, disposal and recycling of waste.

This should be a great partnership with the Phoenix Open, a tournament which regularly smashes attendance records on the PGA Tour.

"It is our plan to implement our service at the Waste Management Phoenix Open... and eventually turn this major sports event into the greenest tournament on the PGA Tour," says David Aardsma, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the company. "It is our plan to showcase practical reduction and recycling solutions and raise awareness about solutions that fans and communities can incorporate into their businesses and lives."

Waste Management has initially signed on to sponsor the Phoenix Open for six years. FBR will continue to be a significant corporate sponsor of the event.

In an unrelated story (but also involving TPC Scottsdale and Plotts), a story ran in last Friday's Arizona Republicthat heralded the course for installing Advanced Sensor Technologies' UgMO underground moisture sensors. The story, "New system monitors golf course water use,"quotes Plotts and Walt Norley, CEO of AST.

Plotts tells the Republic that installing UgMO cost $85,000, but he expects to recoup $45,000 in water savings this year.

And business is booming for UgMO in Arizona. According to Norley, "we're in hiring mode," and the company may add a Phoenix location to serve all their clients in the area as early as next year. Norley says he may have as many as 8 or 10 sales representatives serving Arizona by the end of the year.