Florida Swing Special Report Wednesday 13 March Tampa Bay Championship Preview

So the PGA Tour has reached its third stop on the 2013 Florida Swing and following a WGC and preceding the Arnold Palmer Invitational you would be excused for thinking that the Tampa Bay Championship would not be able to assemble a world-class field and that the tournament would be the weakest out of the four. But you would be wrong.

Defending champion and World Number three Luke Donald heads a field which includes a total of 17 Major champions, plus multiple Players champions and World Golf champions, all of which will be severely tested by the demanding layout at Innisbrook Resort this week. Donald's dramatic play-off victory last year returned him to World Number One and was the first of two victories worldwide in 2012 prior to defending his BMW PGA Championship title at Wentworth in May, the Englishman narrowly defeated Korea's Sang-Moon Bae, former champion Jim Furyk and the monster hitter Robert Garrigus – all of which are in the field this week. 2004 Players champion Adam Scott ended the WGC-Cadillac Championship with a stunning bogey-free 65 and will tee-it-up at Innisbrook in form and looking every bit a potential champion.

Several young Americans will also compete for the title led by Nick Watney, the 2010 WGC-Cadillac Champion had an inconsistent season in 2012 until his play-off victory at Bethpage State Park in August; The Honda Classic champion Michael Thompson is in the field and looking for a third consecutive good week following an awful start to the season, he had only 1 FedEx Cup point prior to his win at PGA National and followed it up with a tie for 8^th place at Doral in the WGC-Cadillac Championship, a win this week would move him inside the top five of the FedEx Cup. 2012 Players champion Matt Kuchar is coming to Innisbrook with a big win already under his belt this season and his consistent game could suit him around the Copperhead Course.

The Copperhead Course is unusual for a Florida course in that is distinctly undulating in nature and is gaining a reputation as one of the most formidable tracks on the PGA Tour, and it culminates with a fearsome threesome of holes known as the Snake-pit. It is Innisbrook's alternative to the Bear Trap at PGA National and consists of the 460-yard Par 4 sixteenth, 215-yard Par 3 seventeenth and 445-yard uphill Par 4 eighteenth. A sting in the tail to a course which tests every skill and makes the golfer use every club in their bag. The resort has five different golf courses, a wide-ranging golf instruction facility, spa and accommodation featuring 500 rooms and suites and has played host to the Tampa Bay Championship, formerly the Tampa Bay Classic, since its first edition in 2000.

The tournament was established in 2000 as one of the final event of the PGA Tour season prior to The Tour Championship, it was a decent event which had a solid but unspectacular field for the first seven editions, but in 2007 the tournament moved to replace the Players Championship in March following the re-structuring of the PGA Tour season, and it has gone from strength to strength. Regardless of its position on the schedule the championship has always produced fantastic champions including John Huston, KJ Choi, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Carl Pettersson, Mark Calcavecchia, Sean O'Hair, Jim Furyk, Gary Woodland and Luke Donald. All of the past champions displayed a rounded game needed to conquer the Copperhead Course, in a tournament which invariably has a close finish.

Despite its apparent increased stature on the tour the Tampa Bay Championship has had a strange problem with keeping a title sponsor, even though we are in difficult economic times other PGA Tour events have had no problems in retaining sponsors and even extending deals, but it hasn't been that way in Tampa. PODS agreed a six year deal in 2006 but two years into it decided to exercise an option to terminate the deal, the last four years have been under the sponsorship of optical company Transitions, but they left after last season's event. EverBank stepped in at the last minute to sponsor the championship for the 2013 event and it will be known as the Tampa Bay Championship presented by EverBank.

Tampa Bay is a large, natural harbour in the West of Florida and the large surrounding area is given the name of the Tampa Bay area although there is no actual place called Tampa Bay. The Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of over 4.2m people and over 90,000 people each year move to the area. St Petersburg is the fourth most populous city in the state of Florida and attracts millions of tourists to the area each year, St Petersburg stages the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg Indy Car race each March which showcases the skyline of St Petersburg across the world on television.

The city is locally known as St. Pete and the beach was formally renamed St. Pete Beach in 1994 after a vote by residents. St Petersburg is the second largest city in the area, with Tampa being the largest with over 345,000 inhabitants and Clearwater being home to just over 100,000 people. The Tampa Bay region is home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tampa Bay Rays, major sporting franchises in the NFL and Major League Baseball which have brought global attention to the area with their achievements in their respective sports in recent years. The 2012 Republican National Convention was held in Tampa at the Tampa Bay Times Forum at the end of August which was one of the most televised events ever held in the region. The Tampa Bay area has hosted four Super Bowls, at the Tampa Stadium in 1984 and 1991 and at the Raymond James Stadium in 2001 and 2009.

Tampa Bay is also home to one of the world's top 25 tourist attractions, Busch Gardens is an African-themed animal theme park located in Tampa and welcomes over 4million people every year.

Tampa Bay is home to over 50 golf courses including the Tournament Players Club Tampa Bay which hosts a Champions Tour event each year and is located to the North of Tampa Bay itself, and five courses at the Innisbrook Golf and Spa Resort, including the Copperhead course which hosts the Tampa Bay Championship.

Another engrossing week of golf awaits us and you can see the action on Golf Channel and NBC in the United States, and Sky Sports in the UK from tomorrow.