The tournament was founded in 2000 as the Tampa Bay Classic. It was originally an alternate event played the same week as the Presidents Cup in 2000, and the same week as the WGC-American Express Championship in 2002. It was supposed to be played the same week as the WGC-American Express Championship on September 13-16, 2001. However, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 forced the cancellations of both tournaments. From 2003 to 2006, the Tampa Bay event had a slot in the schedule to itself as the last full-field event before the Tour Championship. The Chrysler Corporation was the title sponsor. Since 2007, the Tampa Bay event has been played in March. For a time the tournament was without a title sponsor, leading to speculation on its fate beyond 2007. Then, on January 24, 2007, tournament officials and the PGA Tour announced a sponsorship agreement with the PODS Group. Located in Clearwater, Florida, PODS, short for Portable On Demand Storage, signed on for a six-year deal. However, the company chose to exercise an option to withdraw as title sponsor after the 2008 event, and tournament officials searched to find a replacement.On June 4, 2008, Transitions Optical, Inc. was announced as the new title sponsor, giving the tournament the official name of Transitions Championship for Healthy Sight. Past Winners Transitions Championship 2009 Retief Goosen PODS Championship . 2008 Sean O'Hair . 2007 Mark Calcavecchia Chrysler Championship . 2006 K.J. Choi . 2005 Carl Pettersson . 2004 Vijay Singh . 2003 Flag of South Africa Retief Goosen Tampa Bay Classic presented by Buick . 2002 K.J. Choi Tampa Bay Classic . 2001 No tournament. Cancelled due to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. . 2000 John Huston
Jim Furyk carded a final round of 2-under-par 69 and won the Transitions Championship by one-stroke over K.J. Choi.
