Waste Management to be title sponsor of Phoenix Open

Tour finds another title sponsor for Phoenix

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The PGA Tour has picked up its third new title sponsor of the year with an announcement that Waste Management will be sponsor of the Phoenix Open starting next year.

Waste Management replaces FBR, which had said earlier this year it would not renew its contract after 2010.

The tournament, which draws by far the largest crowds of the PGA Tour, will be known as the Waste Management Phoenix Open. It will be held Feb. 25-28 at TPC Scottsdale.

The tour previously found new sponsors for the season-opener in Kapalua (SBS Championship) and a new tournament in West Virginia (The Greenbrier Classic).

Terms of the six-year deal were not disclosed. A PGA Tour official said the tournament would be broadcast all four days on Comcast’s Golf Channel in 2010, mainly because of an Olympic year. CBS Sports, which typically broadcasts the Phoenix Open, has the Super Bowl next year while NBC Sports has the Winter Games in Vancouver.

The Phoenix stop is later than usual next year. In 2011, it is expected to return to its customary Super Bowl weekend slot.

The investment firm FBR, the tournament’s title sponsor since 2004, will remain a corporate sponsor.

Houston-based Waste Management, the largest company of its kind in North America, will be the main Golf Channel advertiser during the tournament.

The tournament is in its 75th year, making it one of the five oldest stops on the PGA Tour, not counting the majors.

The title change was announced Wednesday at a news conference in Scottsdale.

David Aardsma, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Waste Management, said the plan is to make the event “the greenest tournament on the PGA Tour,” emphasizing the company’s recycling efforts raising public awareness about the issue.