PALM HARBOR, Fla. _ The sun came up Thursday. It really did. It rose over the first round of the Valspar Championship at Innisbrook, which is doing its best to muddle through and carry on in the first year A.T. _ After Tiger.
Eldrick the Ungrateful wouldn't be caught dead here. Now that Woods is "back" he has skipped this event, this after he jump started _ or restarted _ his career with a trip to the leaderboard and a second-place finish in last year's Valspar. It was the biggest thing ever, or up there at least.
1. The Creation
2. Tiger at Valspar
3. Columbus discovers America
4. Smokey and the Bandit II
Valspar was the center of the golf universe with Tiger, with a record gallery of 150,000. It is now back to being caught in the pincer between the Arnold Palmer and the Players Championship on one side and then the WGC Match Play and that tournament in Georgia, I forget the name. Woods will play in that, I think.
The media interview room set up last year for the Woods overflow, the room Woods never came into, is still here. New at the Copperhead course is the bridge built for players to make it from the 18th green to the scores tent, over Tiger congestion. No need for it Thursday. Valspar has gone from being Woodstock to a light line at the Publix deli counter.
I pulled up to the course early Thursday morning. I saw the spectator ropes and the volunteers and the golfers heading to work. Wow, they were really going through with this without Himself. TV and everything. No way was this getting called off without Tiger.
"Absolutely not," Valspar tournament director Tracy West said with a laugh. "I'll go on the record with that."
There were 144 golfers who teed off Thursday. I'm sure each and every one of them fought their emotions over Tiger not being here. Among them was Dustin Johnson, the world's top-ranked player, and the last two Masters champions, Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia. Valspar soldiered on. It has its tournament back, and a fine tournament it is.
"For us, ticket sales, everything, has continued to grow" West said. "We're at levels over 2017. It's not going to be what 2018 was. We're not going to have the fans who came to see him, but we're going to capture some of them."
There is no forgetting 2018.
"The phones, just everything blew up," West said.
Thursday wasn't as crowded as the first round last year. The lines weren't Tiger long. And Valspar apparently remains flush with the extra portable toilets it brought in for the Tiger overflow. There were unconfirmed reports that people are driving to Innisbrook just to use the rest rooms.
There is nothing wrong with this golf tournament without Tiger Mania. Ten of the top 30 players in the world are working the Copperhead. It's just that Tiger went and ruined it, bringing in all the gawkers. The regulars jostled with them for one year. Thursday, things were back to normal.
Still, last year lingers.
"I don't often plant myself on the first tee, but I did last year for Tiger," West said. "Just looking down the fairway, we had just never seen crowds like that here. I was awestruck. We looked like a major."
"This is quieter," said Bob Doherty of Largo, who attended Thursday's first round with his wife, Allison. They are Valspar regulars,. They were here for Tiger last year, part of a throng that stood 50 deep to watch Tiger's every move.
"It was a challenging day," Allison said. "The crowd was so big and the course is so small. There wasn't a lot of flow."
Yes, the Valspar, back to being the Valspar, made it through a day without Tiger. Maybe last year made casual fans like golf more, maybe our community realized that most towns would kill to have a PGA Tour event.
"We're not the sleepy tournament we used to be," West said. "We've got some stature. We're not a major. We don't purport to be a major. But we're happy where we are, If Tiger comes back next year, fantastic. If he doesn't, we're still going to have a great party. We're good."
Father Skip Baltz, a senior priest visiting Florida from Vermont, followed Keegan Bradley on Thursday. Father Skip, a 16 handicap, did not pray for Tiger to play Valspar again.
"This is a great place to watch golf," Father Skip said. "It's not just about Tiger."
Tiger Woods has his reasons for not being here. He enjoyed his Valspar last year, loved the course. But he is only going to play 16 events and something had to give.
We lose.
"Hey, look, he makes his own schedule," Father Skip said.
But we know all there is only one schedule-maker who really matters.
"And you know who that is?" Father Skip said.
Amen.
Meanwhile, good flow Thursday.
