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Tournament Stats:
Transitions ChampionshipMarch 19 - 22, 2009
Innisbrook Resort (Copperhead Course)
Palm Harbour, Fla.
Par: 71 / Yardage: 7,340
Purse: $5.4 million with $972,000 going to the winner
Defending Champions: Sean O'Hair
List of Champions & Scores
Results & Scores of 2008 Transitions Championship
Box Score of 2008 Transitions Championship
Tournament facts:
Tournament Record:266 (Vijay Singh in 2004)
54-Hole Record:
199 (K.J. Choi in 2002)
36-Hole Record:
131 (K.J. Choi in 2002)
Low round of tournament:
62 (Mark Calcavecchia in the 3rd round in 2007 & Jeff Sluman in the 1st round in 2004)
Tournament information:
This will be the 9th Transitions Championship, with the first one being played in 2000. The tournament was formally called the Tampa Bay Classic and then changed in 2003 to the Chrysler Championship, which after last year's event discontinued the relationship. The 2001 event wasn't played because of the 9/11 tragedy.With the advent of the FedEx Cup series, the Tampa Bay Championship was chosen to fill in the empty week left with the transfer of the Players Championship to May. Even with a short turnaround (less than six months) and the loss of a sponsor, the tournament moved and last year secured PODS as a title sponsor. Unfortunely because of a change of management at PODS, they have decided to drop sponsorship after last year. In June stepped in Transitions, a Tampa Bay based opitical lens manufacturing company who signed a four year contract to take over sponsorship.
When the tournament first started in 2000, it was the first time that a full PGA Tour event was held in the area since the St. Petersburg Open, which was held between 1930 and 1964. The course was the home of the mix-event JCPenney Classic, which ended in 1999.
Course information:
The Copperhead course was designed by Larry Packard and opened in 1974. It was restored in 1999, two years after it was purchased by Westin Inc, The goal of the restoration project was to regain the shot values and still challenge today's longer-hitting PGA Tour players when Innisbrook hosts PGA Tour events. The plan involved refurbishing all 18 greens, restructuring many of the bunkers, removing some trees around the greens to improve air movement and sunlight, and clearing out undergrowth between fairways. The length of the golf course is the most visible change from 7,087 to 7,230 yards by the addition of tournament tees on five holes. A reported $500,000 was spent and the course re-opened just in time for the 1999 JCPenney Classic.The Buzz:
May seem hard to believe but this week the 2008 PGA Tour FedEx Cup season is a quarter of the way finished, wonder who is panicking over FedEx Cup points.Couple of things, first this event is like a cat with nine lives, since it's first year in 2000 it's been a struggle, first with the cancellation of the event in 2001 because of 9/11 and then having three sponsors in a span of the last four years. But as Mick Elliott writes in the Tampa Tribune, there won't be and doom and gloom for this event for the next couple of years with Transitions signing up for four years. One other nice thing, with the economy the way it is you can bet that tournament and PGA Tour officials don't have to worry about this event.
With the change of schedule, moving the WGC-CA up and moving this event back has hurt it in getting top name players. Last year seven top-25 world ranked players with three of them from the top-ten showed up, this year the only top-ten player to show up was one, Kenny Perry and only five total top-25 players. Wedging this event between the WGC-CA and Arnold Palmer hasn't helped it and they will be looking forward to not having that happen again.
One player that we thought would be in the field and wasn't is Davis Love III who is 48th in the world rankings and has to hold on until the end of the Arnold Palmer Invitational to get into the Masters. Love feels that he will be able to play good enough next week to secure the spot, but if he loses it he may kick himself for not playing in Innisbrook.
Another disappointment for the event was the withdrawal of Vijay Singh on Monday, he hasn't played that great since surgery and we can only think that he needs some time to rest the knee.
Here are some things to look for this week:
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Many wondered if the difference from playing in October or March made a big difference, yes the course was more lush and the rough was tougher, but March winds made this a bit tougher. Difference wise, last year the course played to a 72.970 average, in 2007 it played to a 72.005 average while in October of 2006 it played to a 71.812 average. But in October of 2005 it played to a 72.229 average so the change of months really didn't make it harder or easier. Still the Bermuda grass will be healthy and look greener and lusher. It will be easier to attack, of course mother nature will have the main say on this if it's windy.
Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at the Transitions Championship:
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Key stat for the winner:
Accuracy is more of a premium than it was in October now that the rough has been overseeded and is more lush. - Florida is always windy, look for that to play havoc on the players who haven't had to play Innisbrook under windy conditions
- All the par 5s are within reach of the average player and even though the course is over 7,200 yards this won't present much of a problem, look for lots of greens to be hit.
- In looking at the eight champions of this event, four of them have this in common. They were in the top-five in driving distance, and the bottom quarter of the fairways hit category. six of the seven winners were in the top-ten in greens hit with the last five winners, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, Carl Pettersson, K.J. Choi and Mark Calcavecchia finishing the week T2nd, T1st, T3rd, T5th and T9th in greens hit.
- So look at all of these facts and you can come to the conclusion that good ballstrikers ruled the roost. This is not your typical Florida type of course because the fairways are tight, the rough will be tall with tough putting surfaces.
- Number of putts is also important when you consider that six of the eight past winners were in the top-ten in this stat. Calcavecchia was 3rd averaging 27.25 putts per round last year.
