With both the WM Phoenix Open and Arizona’s golf industry intimately tied to Arizona’s identity, vitality, generosity and sustainability, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee concisely summed up the unparalleled community-wide impact during coverage of “The People’s Open.”
He laid out WM’s immense contribution to an already iconic tournament that turbocharged the event to include unprecedented sustainability awareness and achievements, including its distinction as the largest certified-zero waste sporting events in the world.
Chamblee called out the tournament’s incredible generosity with The Thunderbirds and the WM Phoenix Open raising more than $160 million for local charities since 2010, when WM became the title sponsor. In its 90-year history, the tournament has contributed more than $220 million to benefit nonprofits across Arizona.
Expanding charitable giving throughout the rest of the year, Chamblee pointed out that golf in the Valley of the Sun, as a vehicle for fundraising, generates an estimated $100 million in donations every year to numerous nonprofit organizations.
Furthermore, Chamblee laid out the game’s importance as a driver of economic validity. “It’s huge business. It’s a $6 billion industry. It provides 66,000 jobs that pay roughly $2.5 billion in salaries, which results in about a ½ billion dollars in income tax, and 2.5 million people come here every year and spend the night domestically.”
For all of this, the golf industry only uses 2% of the state’s water supply. “There’s hardly a more sophisticated irrigation system in all of the United States than they have here in Arizona,” he concluded.
