PGA Tour Transitions Championship

By Brent Kelley, About.com Guide

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Retief Goosen is a 2-time winner of the Transitions Championship.

Photo © Rich Hodge; used with permission

About the Transitions Championship:

The Transitions Championship is the PGA Tour's stop in the Tampa/St. Petersburg Greater Metropolitan Area in Florida. This tournament is played in the weeks leading up to The Masters during the Tour's "Florida swing." Transitions Optical, makers of lenses for eyeglasses, became title sponsor beginning in 2009.

2012 Transitions Championship
Luke Donald birdied the first playoff hole to grab the victory at the 2012 Transitions. Donald, Jim Furyk, Sang-Moon Bae and Robert Garrigus all finished 72 holes tied at 271. They started the playoff on the 18th hole, and Donald was the only one to score a birdie. It's Donald's fifth career win on the PGA Tour.

2011 Transitions Championship
Gary Woodland fired a final-round 67 to claim his first PGA Tour victory. Woodland two-putted from a precarious position on the final green to save par, then watched as Webb Simpson was unable to get up-and-down for par from a similar position. Simpson finished second, a stroke back, after that closing bogey.

Official Web site
PGA Tour tournament site

Transitions Championship Records:

72-hole record: 266 - Vijay Singh, 2004
18-hole record: 61 - Padraig Harrington, 2012

Transitions Championship Golf Course:

The Transitions Championship is played today on the same course it debuted on, and has been played there each year: The Copperhead Course at the Westin Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Fla.

Transitions Championship Trivia and Notes:

The tournament began as the Tampa Bay Classic in 2000. Chrysler and Pods preceded current title sponsor Transitions Optical in that role.
This event was canceled in 2001 in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The tournament had been schedule for the following weekend.
K.J. Choi (2002, 2006) was the first 2-time winner of the Transitions Championship, and Retief Goosen (2003, 2009) has since joined Choi.

In its earlier years, the tournament was played in the later part of the PGA Tour schedule, first as an opposite-field event (played the same week as the Presidents Cup in 2000, then the same week as the WGC American Express Championship in 2002), then as the lead-in to the Tour Championship. Beginning in 2007, the tournament moved to the front part of the schedule.

John Daly pulled then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden from outside the ropes to caddie for him during part of the first round in 2008. Instructor Butch Harmon cited Daly's behavior at the tournament (where Daly allegedly had a little too much to drink during a rain delay) when he dropped Daly as a client.