By JEFF SIMON

Has it really been this long? Something this good, this positive, this fresh can’t last this long can it?

But the Phoenix Open has survived. No, the Phoenix Open has thrived here in the desert since 1932. The last two years, in these the most difficult of economic conditions, we’ve all seen what it takes to keep a professional golf tournament going. In fact, throughout the last 60 years golf tournaments have come on gone on the PGA TOUR. One of the constants, however, has always been the Phoenix TOUR stop.

There is a good reason for the tremendous success of the biggest golf tournament in the world. One group has consistently been able to deliver one big tournament, one big party after another. It is the Thunderbirds who have perfected the art of making golf can’t miss action in the Valley of the Sun. They have a way of attracting a crowd. And the Thunderbirds have done it again in this their 75th year. In this anniversary year you would expect the Thunderbirds to make the 2010 Waste Management Phoenix Open a special experience and it is.

Having run this tournament for so long there have been a lot of special moments, some of which few people have ever known. Like the time Arnold Palmer wasn’t coming to play golf in Phoenix. Thunderbird Jerry Lewkowitz was tournament director in 1971 and was willing to do about anything to get the most famous golfer in the world to play at Arizona Country Club. Lewkowitz had traveled to the other stops on the West Coast, to San Diego, to Palm Springs and to Pebble Beach trying to convince Palmer and others Phoenix needed them and they needed Phoenix. “I did everything including sending roses to Palmer’s wife,” Lewkowitz said. “But he couldn’t make a commitment.”

Apparently, Lewkowitz did enough because Palmer ended up committing the week before the tournament when he wanted to continue his outstanding play. But that created another problem for Lewkowitz. Palmer wanted to play in the Wednesday Pro-Am and his requested foursome included Del Webb, Bob Goldwater and Bob Hope. Now, getting Webb and Goldwater was no problem. Both were well-known local golfers and businessmen. Heck Goldwater started the Phoenix Open.

But getting Hope to the desert wouldn’t be as easy. In his position as tournament director, Lewkowitz knew a lot of people. But not enough to track down Hope whose whereabouts were unknown. “I tried to get a hold of him and track him down, but couldn’t,” Lewkowitz said. Not to worry. A call back to Palmer resulted in the “King” finding Hope and getting him to Phoenix. Just another day at the office for Lewkowitz in 1971. “My guess was that attendance increased by 25,000 fans,” Lewkowitz said. “People wanted to see Palmer. He made people conscientious of golf.”

Kind of the way the Thunderbirds have made people stop and take a hard look at what golf has meant to the Valley of the Sun for the last 75 years. The Phoenix area wasn’t always a golf destination. Much of the credit for creating one of the most soft-after golfing Mecca’s goes to the Thunderbirds. To understand the Thunderbirds you must know where they came from. The group of 55 active members was formed in 1937 by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce as it tried to created more tourism in the area. In creating a name for this new group there was no formal ceremony or no secret initiation. The Chamber of Commerce official emblem was and still is a Thunderbird and that to became the name of the new committee.

Of course one of those first members was Goldwater and his idea was to form a professional golf tournament. It was an idea that was met with little enthusiasm and if not for his tireless effort, it might have been one and done when it came to running a tournament. Because he thought the cause worthwhile, Goldwater became the “Father of the Phoenix Open.”

The folks in the Midwest, stuck in the middle of a cold and dreary winter, saw first hand what the desert can look like in the winter when the Phoenix Open was first televised in 1973. The Thunderbirds ability to get the tournament on national television resulted in immediate tourism results. Lewkowitz says it is customary for the newest active Thunderbirds to manage the parking at each year’s event. In 1973 a member was manning the parking lot when a car pulled up and asked if this was the location of the golf tournament. He responded to them that is was and then inquired where they were coming from. The group had seen the tournament the day before on the television and couldn’t resist the sunshine. They got in the car and drove straight through to Arizona. The Phoenix Chamber of Commerce idea was obviously working.

Of course things started to change for the Thunderbirds in the 1980’s. The Phoenix Open was not only fully grown; it was now bulging at the seams at the Phoenix Country Club. Parking and gallery size were a nightmare at the club in downtown Phoenix. After years of working with developers and the PGA TOUR, it was decided the tournament would move to a new facility, the TPC Scottsdale in 1987.

Some of the Thunderbirds, including Lewkowitz, thought the move to the north part of Scottsdale was a bad idea. It was thought to be the beginning of the end for the Phoenix Open. “Even some of my friends told me nobody was going to go way out there to watch golf,” said 1987 tournament chairman Pete Scardello. People realize now that the move was a good one with over 500,000 fans regularly gracing the TPC Scottsdale during tournament week.

It is an event unlike any other in golf and maybe in all of sports. Yes it is called the “Greatest show on grass” but even some people who attend don’t see the advertised show. And that’s OK with the Thunderbirds. “Some people never see a golf shot,” Scardello said. “It appeals to all people.”

As tournament director in 1987, Scardello had to organize what was essentially a new tournament and he admits it wasn’t easy. If there was any comfort it came from his fellow Thunderbirds, both active and life Thunderbirds. Remember this group had many years of experience running a golf tournament.

But that doesn’t mean they haven’t had their fair share of anxious moments. In 1987, the carpet in the TPC Scottsdale’s clubhouse wasn’t completely installed until the Sunday prior to the tournament. And then there was the issue with the port-o-johns. It was the middle of tournament week and Scardello got a call on his walkie-talkie (remember there weren’t cell phones back then). It was his wife who was watching the pro-am out on the 15th hole. She informed the tournament director that the lines forming at the port-o-johns locations were getting out of control. “We just didn’t know where to place them and didn’t know exactly how many people were going to come,” Scardello said. “At the end of that first week we knew we had done the right thing. We just weren’t quite as prepared because of the size.”

Under the Thunderbirds’ direction the tournament got so big so fast even the famed Birds Nest with its live entertainment and libations wasn’t immune. The second night it was open at the TPC Scottsdale the local fire marshall arrived and had to limit the number of people allowed in the big tent.

When the PGA TOUR has needed a group to come to its rescue it has been the Thunderbirds. When Tiger Woods was ready to host his own tournament who organized it at the Grayhawk Golf Club? The Thunderbirds. They didn’t have a whole lot of time to get the event up and going, but they did it. There may have been a few glitches along the way, but the great thing about the Thunderbirds was no one would ever know it.

When the PGA TOUR stop scheduled for Northern California had to be moved because the golf course wasn’t quite ready, the Thunderbirds were there again. For the last three years they’ve helped run the Frys.com Open at Grayhawk, a tournament that has been part of the TOUR’s Fall Series.

The Thunderbirds’ efforts on the golf course have resulted in a list of champions that is a who’s who of professional golf.Off the course, where the least amount of noise occurs when the Thunderbirds are involved, is where the group makes more of a difference than most people could ever imagine. The list of charities the Thunderbirds have helped over the last 75 years is considerably longer than the list of champions in the history of the tournament. “We’ve always given as much as we could,” Scardello said. “Some year’s we’ve been able to do more than others.” Well over 150 charities have benefitted from the Open which has given over $65 million to various charities.

That’s one of many reasons Lewkowitz keeps coming back to the tournament. It’s been a long time since he was an active Thunderbird. But he’s at the Open every year doing what he still can to make the tournament a success. “I wouldn’t miss it,” Lewkowitz said. “There are life birds all over the place helping because being a Thunderbird instills an appreciation for the community.”