PODS May Ask Out Of Sponsorship Deal

My first reaction to the news that PODs may back out of its sponsorship deal was that the company didn’t like their tournament being on the fall schedule after the Tour Championship.

Then I remembered that the PODs Championship actually is now an early season event. It was held in March in 2007, just prior to Palmer’s Invitational, and four weeks ahead of the Masters. That’s a pretty good time for attracting name players.

So there’s no obvious reason for the pullout. ESPN suggests that it may have to do with the company’s impending sale; that makes sense. But what doesn’t make sense is that PODs was the event’s third sponsor since 2000. First Buick, then Chrysler had previously backed out.

“All of the things that we feel good about with respect to the tournament—the Tampa market generally and the golf course specifically, all of those things are positives for the event,’’ said PGA Tour executive Ty Votaw. “We felt that way about the market and the tournament before PODS became a sponsor.’’

I’m thinking that this may be GolfBlogger.Com’s big break. I should empty the retirement account and step up to sponsor the tournament.