PODS Championship

A vote of PGA TOUR professionals has given the Copperhead Course at the Westin Innisbrook Golf Resort, the site of the Chrysler Championship, a grade of "A" as a championship venue. The Copperhead was one of only five courses on the 2003 PGA TOUR schedule so honored.

"This confirms the impression we've received from the public comments of so many players that the pros love our course," says Tournament Director Gerald Goodman. "One of the reasons we had a great field last year is that the best players like the best courses. They love a course where par is a good score, where getting from the tee to the green is as important as how hot your putter is that week."

Here are some of the comments PGA TOUR pros made about the Copperhead last year.

ERNIE ELS
"It's a great golf course, I want to tell you. It's a hidden gem on TOUR. It's a shotmaker's course. You've got to move it both ways. They've narrowed the fairways, the rough is up and the look is different than the other Florida golf courses. We kind of always see the same kind of courses on TOUR, but this is different. It's almost got an Australian look. The bunkers, the greens, there is a lot of undulation. The par 3s are great, and you really have to drive it well or you won't play well. It is the best course that the PGA TOUR plays in Florida."

DAVIS LOVE III
"It's great. Geez, it's a lot harder than I remember. Maybe it's gotten harder and I've gotten older. It's certainly in incredible shape. The rough is deep, the greens are fast. Some of the guys said they're the fastest greens we've putted all year, and certainly by the weekend they could be."

RETIEF GOOSEN
"It is a great golf course. It's a tough golf course. You've got to really work your way around it. It's not just hitting it out there and finding it. The greens are very tricky. This tournament is definitely, to me, one of the better tournaments I would play on TOUR."

STEWART CINK
"They should play a U.S. Open on this course."

CHARLES HOWELL III
"The golf course was very tough. I much prefer tournaments like this compared to last week, where you know (you are playing) a really hard golf couse. It will reward a good shot, but it's one of the tougher and one of the better courses we play."

THOMAS LEVET
"It was one of the two best courses I saw this year. It was very narrow, very demanding. Every shot is difficult. If you don't think about the shot you are going to play and you leave yourself downgrain, you are pretty much dead."

VIJAY SINGH
"This week you make par and you know you had a good score."

BRAD FAXON
"I love this course. To me, it's one of the best courses we play all year long. I give it an A-plus."

FRED COUPLES
"This is easily one of the four or five best courses we play all year."

JOHN HUSTON
"I could not be looking forward to this tournament more. It is one of my favorite courses. It's a good driving course. The guys who drive it well will do well here. I don't have much of an advantage knowing this course so well because it never plays this hard. It's beyond where it has been for previous events."

ROCCO MEDIATE
"I have always loved this course. I liked it before, but it is kind of neat to see it now. If you don't put the ball in the fairway here, it's going to be almost impossible to play any type of good golf. It's just that simple. If you're not in the fairway here, it's going to be a miserable week. I like it that way."

DAN FORSMAN
"It's a championship course for sure. The Copperhead has great respect. Not only from golfers around the state of Florida, but from around the country. They didn't name it the Copperhead because it's a pet reptile. It's got some sting. That is what make winning or playing well on a course like this all the sweeter. It's a wonderful resort. There's convenience staying right here. Camaraderie, seeing the guys and hanging out with them."

JON BRENDLE, PGA TOUR Rules Official
"The Copperhead is a golf course of major championship quality. It's that strong a golf course. It's one of those golf courses that was built on a perfect piece of property. It has hills, a tree line. You hit it in the woods, it's hard to get out of those pines. And if you let the rough grow, there's not many players who can hit it out of 2-inch-deep Bermuda."

GLEN DAY
"I think the course is one of the best courses we play on TOUR. I think it was playing great."