That the Valspar Championship exists at all is remarkable.
Now in it’s 18th year, the tournament started as The Tampa Bay Championship, a silly season event in 2000 opposite the President’s Cup. The next year it was cancelled due to 9/11 (it was scheduled to be played opposite the WGC-American Express Championship that year). The tournament returned in ’02 as the Tampa Bay Championship presented by Buick when Buick execs decided they weren’t sponsoring enough golf events. It probably didn’t hurt that the Tampa Bay area was a target-rich environment for old people with disposable income who could be coaxed into a new LaSabre.
From ’03 to ’06 the event doubled down on being a generic auto-industry event as the Chrysler Championship (amongst other Chrysler events in Greensboro, Palm Springs, and Tuscon), playing in a vacuum the week before The Tour Championship, which put it right in the middle of football season in Florida. People probably didn’t even know the event existed!
2007 ushered in a new era with a scheduling change to the middle of the Florida Swing. Kirk Triplett brought his PODS swag to town in the the form of a two-year stint as the Portable On Demand Storage Championship. ’09 brought with it the advent of the Transitions Championship, which was essentially a week long celebration of Trevor Immelman and Kenny Perry fighting the good fight against harmful blue light. Transitions (headquartered down the road on the outskirts of St. Jetersburg) lasted four years before bailing. At that point EverBank, a regional bank out of Jacksonville, magnanimously stepped in as a one-year stopgap and essentially saved the tournament. Thankfully Valspar came to the rescue in ’14 and we the fans get to learn about paint products (in a city where huffing paint is probably pretty popular) and it seems like a solid fit.
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To recap, in a span of fifteen years this tournament has been in bed with Detroit, big storage, big sun protection, big finance and now big paint, and survived a massive recession and a scheduling change. With the initial four-year Valspar contract now extended through 2020, a top-notch field – including some strong European-based talent – continued improvements to the golf course, huge ticket sales and a run of exciting finishes the past few years, the tournament appears set up for success well into the future. Crazy turnaround.
Course
None of the recent success of the tournament would’ve been possible without a solid host venue. While the merits of the Innisbrook Resort at large can certainly be debated (if you’re going to be that close to the beach I’d rather be ON the beach and it’s been a process making the necessary improvements to get the resort up to snuff), the Copperhead Course continues to make for a solid tournament venue. With elevation change and large trees lining each hole the property doesn’t feel like the rest of the Florida Swing. Guys can’t fake it around there – the layout demands accuracy off the tee, the ability to work the ball both ways and the propensity to deal with green speeds that seem to increase annually.
Much is made of the “Snake Pit” and, despite my general aversion to nicknaming stretches of holes, this is an above-average closing stretch. Additionally, the 5th (one of the toughest par 5’s on the entire tour), 6th holes (MUST be in fairway off the tee), and 14th (long double dogleg par 5) demand discipline and accuracy rather than sheer power. The tour website offered up a comprehensive gallery of the course this week.
Enduring Memories
Randy: I’ll confess to not having very lucid memories of this event. The Transitions title sponsorship was fun for a few years with the Kenny Perry led marketing campaign. Since Valspar became involved, each year I look forward to Tron successfully wrangling Curt Schilling into pithy Twitter threads involving his (allegedly) painted sock and Big Paint, in general. There’s certain stuff that will always make me laugh, and that’s damn near the top of the list. As for the actual golf, I think Spieth’s win in 2015 stands out the most due to the significance it entailed (shaking off near-miss criticism and setting the stage for Augusta). Finally, I’d like to mention the optics of the Copperhead Course always intrigue me as a television viewer. It doesn’t have the look (i.e. tons and tons of water) like other Florida stops. I find that refreshing. I swear the year John Senden won the course looked like a midwestern parkland course in Fall. That may be completely in my head, who knows.
Yo @gehrig38 – you headed to Tampa this week for the Valspar? One of the best tournaments of the year! #BigPaint https://t.co/q3Ok0IySFp
— Tron Carter (@TronCarterNLU) March 7, 2017
Neil (via phone): Probably Lee McCoy balling out as an amateur a couple years ago. In all honesty I didn’t even know this tourney existed until we started NLU. I take that back, the Trevor Immelmann and Kenny Perry Transitions commercial where they’re barbecuing was top notch.
DJ: The Spieth/Patrick Reed duel is obviously what springs to mind for me. Maybe even more than Spieth’s win, the disgusting up and down that Reed made to stay alive in the playoff was as good as it gets – You gotta remember, this is peak Reed fever. Let’s all watch it again.
Soly: When I hear the word “Valspar” the first thing I think about is the guy that JT murdered with the driver off the deck. I think about the family that he left behind, and can’t get over the image of JT leaving a signed glove on his lifeless body, sprawled out in the rough under a tree where that man no doubt felt he was safe. The birdie he made on the hole just poured salt into the wound. The tournament should put a plaque in under that tree honoring that man, and JT should be forced to return to tournament every year to pay tribute.
Got 'em pic.twitter.com/9Uv4iPNhNw
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) March 13, 2016
Tron: I wrote about this in the preview a few years ago, but everyone remembers the significant “firsts” in life– first beer, first illicit sexual encounter in someone’s basement, first time stepping foot at Augusta National. Add first time experiencing “Spotlight Coverage” on Golf Channel. It happened in 2014 and Swantek, Immelman, Byrum, BRB, et al. bombarded my television with trackman stats, fresh camera angles, strong takes geared toward serious golf fans, and the perspective inherent when you take a diverse cross section of talent and show dozens of guys play the same few shots on the 13th hole. It was an eye-opening telecast that got me hooked, shed a light on the variety of trajectories on tour, and is something they’ve since incorporated to a degree on PGATour Live.
Odds and Ends
– In the lead-up to this year’s event I’ve heard Tracy West’s name pop up several times in interviews and conversations previewing the event. Sometimes people went out of their way to mention her. While ’15’s Spieth/Reed duel and last year’s Hadwin/Cantlay battle certainly helped attract eyeballs, West, the tournament director since ’14, had the vision and the diligence to ensure the event in a position to capitalize on those good breaks. I talked to a variety of tour officials, players and media and they were all effusive in their praise of what she’s accomplished. West consistently works her butt off, traveling to most events to create relationships with players and benchmark best practices. The consensus seems to be that Valspar and Travelers are in a league of their own with regard to doing the little things right, getting players there for the first time, and then letting the experience and venue speak for itself. Keep it up.
– Accenting a stacked field (Rose, Cat, Stenson, Spi