GOLF COLUMN

Dramatic Ending Caps Ideal Week In Spring Debut

By MICK ELLIOTT

Published: Mar 12, 2007

PALM HARBOR - Late Sunday evening, tournament officials began boxing up the PODS Championship for storage. Talk about a successful move.

A mere 17 weeks after the PGA Tour last visited Innisbrook Resort, the tournament once again had come and gone, transferred, without a scratch, to its new home as part of golf's spring Florida Swing.

"For them to have pulled it off is pretty remarkable," PGA Tour director of tournament affairs Tim Crosby said. "They overdelivered."

The end result helped. Four days of weather by paradise along with Sunday's last-hole drama that gave Mark Calcavecchia a one-shot victory made for golf easy to enjoy.

The whole week was good viewing - Calcavecchia's tournament record-tying 62 Saturday; Heath Slocum's putt to force a playoff on the 72nd hole that seemed to already be in the hole before jumping out; Jesper Parnevik's cosmic theories; K.J. Choi continuing his affinity for the Copperhead Course. It was so good even Vijay Singh was seen smiling. Once.

Yet, the tournament's best story was that there was no story. Nothing that should not have stood out stood out. Its golf bag had all 14 clubs. Its box of doughnuts was a full dozen. Just like it was supposed to be.

"It looked like the PODS Championship had been here for 10 years," Crosby said.

Just two months ago there was growing speculation Tampa Bay's PGA Tour stop was in trouble. Even after receiving its new spring date on the schedule, an ongoing search for a needed title sponsor generated little corporate interest.

In the history of the PGA Tour, no tournament had ever been asked to put on two events within such a short turnaround time, much less in its spare time recruit a title sponsor.

You don't know stress until you're seven weeks from handing out a $5.3 million tournament purse and can't find a corporate checkbook.

That's when PODS, the Clearwater-born and based moving and storage company, stepped in with what has to rank as the most fashionably late entrance known to golf. Its commitment to a six-year tournament sponsorship deal was announced Jan. 24.

"One day later and I'm told we would not have had time to get the trophy produced," tournament director Gerald Goodman said.

Looking Good

Calcavecchia, however, had crystal in hand and high over his head Sunday just as the sun dipped below the pine trees that line Innisbrook and soon dropped into the nearby Gulf. Down the stretch he also had a gallery in tow that lined fairways and encircled greens.

The backdrop was the major-league look that tournament organizers long ago imagined when first beginning to lobby for a spring date. They just never figured that when the time finally came to cook, they'd have to do it with a microwave to get to the table in time.

If you don't say a word, nobody will ever know the secret.

"As good as it gets," Calcavecchia said. "Everything was just the way it was every other time we've played here."

Well, not everything. The week's crowd was estimated at 90,000, more than double the turnout for last year's event played in October. NBC, with its A-team, including Johnny Miller, the best voice in golf, was on hand to provide a national broadcast. It was Miller who, during airtime, mentioned that, "You could host a major here today and not have to do a thing."

An aerial shot from the blimp soon showed the Innisbrook layout and the Tampa Bay coastline.

And Charity, Too

It was about then that somewhere just outside Peoria that Henry, taking a break from shoveling the driveway, turned to wife Ethel and said, "That looks like a nice place to visit."

This was good. This has promise.

"Oh, this event is only going to get better," Charles Howell III said. "You hear thoughts that this is the best golf course we play in Florida. Their date here now is fantastic. This will continue to grow and grow."

ACC basketball was a hoot for the Tampa Bay area. It brought out-of-state visitors and some of the best basketball you will ever want to see. Then it left and might never be seen here again. The PODS Championship will be back next year. And the next. Same time, same million-dollar donation to local charities.

"The community stepped up. Our volunteers stepped up," Goodman said. "We had an air about us. We think it's straight up for the future."

Strong move.