More Information About PODS Championship
The Transitions Championship is a men's professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, and is played annually on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Florida.
History
The tournament was founded in 2000 as the Tampa Bay Classic. It was originally an alternate event played the same week as the Presidents Cup in 2000, and the same week as the WGC-American Express Championship in 2002. It was supposed to be played the same week as the WGC-American Express Championship on September 13-16, 2001. However, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 forced the cancellations of both tournaments.
From 2003 to 2006, the Tampa Bay event had a slot in the schedule to itself as the last full-field event before the Tour Championship. The Chrysler Corporation was the title sponsor.
Since 2007, the Tampa Bay event has been played in March. For a time the tournament was without a title sponsor, leading to speculation on its fate beyond 2007. Then, on January 24, 2007, tournament officials and the PGA Tour announced a six-year sponsorship agreement with the PODS of Clearwater, Florida.[1] However, the company chose to exercise an option to withdraw as title sponsor after the 2008 event, and tournament officials searched to find a replacement.[2] On June 4, 2008, Transitions Optical, Inc., headquartered locally in Largo, Florida, was announced as the new title sponsor.[3]
The players with the most wins in the event are Retief Goosen (2003 and 2009), and K.J. Choi (2002 and 2006).
The tournament record was set by Vijay Singh in 2004 with a -18 winning total of 266.
Winners
| Date |
Winner |
Country |
Score |
1st Prize ($) |
Purse ($) |
| Transitions Championship |
| Mar 22, 2009 |
Retief Goosen |
 South Africa |
276 (-8) |
972,000 |
5,400,000 |
| PODS Championship |
| Mar 9, 2008 |
Sean O'Hair |
 United States |
280 (-4) |
954,000 |
5,300,000 |
| Mar 11, 2007 |
Mark Calcavecchia |
United States |
274 (-10) |
954,000 |
5,300,000 |
| Chrysler Championship |
| Oct 29, 2006 |
K. J. Choi |
 South Korea |
271 (-13) |
954,000 |
5,300,000 |
| Oct 30, 2005 |
Carl Pettersson |
 Sweden |
275 (-9) |
954,000 |
5,300,000 |
| Oct 31, 2004 |
Vijay Singh |
 Fiji |
266 (-18) |
900,000 |
5,000,000 |
| Nov 2, 2003 |
Retief Goosen |
South Africa |
272 (-12) |
864,000 |
4,800,000 |
| Tampa Bay Classic presented by Buick |
| Sep 22, 2002 |
K. J. Choi |
South Korea |
267 (-17) |
468,000 |
2,600,000 |
| Tampa Bay Classic |
| Sep 16, 2001 |
Cancelled due to the terrorist attacks on September 11 |
| Oct 22, 2000 |
John Huston |
United States |
271 (-13) |
432,000 |
2,400,000 |
Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
References
External links
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