PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Sara Hackney remembers the deflating feeling of having to cancel the 2020 Valspar Championship.
“It was pretty devastating. Don’t get me wrong, it was the right decision, but it was pretty devastating,” she said.
The Valspar brand manager has worked with tournament director Tracy West to put on, as they like to say, the most colorful tournament on the PGA Tour, since Valspar joined up with the event in Palm Harbor.
To pull the plug in the final hours before the first tee shot a year ago still hurts.
“I was shocked,” recalls Hackney.
A year removed from the COVID cancellation, the tournament announced Monday it will go ahead in 2021 with 20-30 percent fan capacity when golfers tee off at the Innisbrook Resort’s famed Copperhead course on April 29.
The return prompted Valspar to find new ways to reinvigorate the community after the “dim days” of 2020.
“I have tried golf. I was very much not very good at it,” joked the St. Petersburg-based muralist. “I hit the ball backwards once. I don’t even know how that happened.”
His specialty is wielding a brush, not swinging a club. Valspar sought out a local muralist with flare matching the brand’s color-forward style and settled on Zulu, whose work can be seen all around Tampa Bay. Zulu will create a mural in a location chosen by golf fans in the weeks leading up to the Valspar Championship. The tournament is asking fans to nominate a building or location in need of reinvigorating coat of color after a tough pandemic year.
“It could be a community center that has been a little bit empty of a school that many not have had that excitement,” said Hackney. “Everything needs a little brightening up after last year. We want to start right here in our Tampa Bay community.”
Fans can submit short, one-minute or less videos on Twitter by tagging the tournament’s social handle, @ValsparChamp, and using the hashtag, #ValsparBackToBright. Nominations will be accepted through Sunday, March 7 and a winning location will be chosen on the 10th.
Then, Valspar will unleash Zulu to get as creative as possible.
“I like bright colors. I like patterns. I like shapes. I like people’s faces. I like fun images of energy and flow,” said the muralist, who began doing murals in 2012 and already has a few ideas for his next piece. “We have to get back to bright. We have to shrug off all that COVID. I don’t even like to say it.”
In an added wrinkle, the tournament will also be awarding a mural opportunity to the winner of the 2021 tournament. That player will get to select the place for another art wall in any city of his choosing.
“Everybody is excited to be back,” said Hackney. “We wanted people to feel comfortable getting back to their bright.”
“It’s not that hard to remember the brightness that we had after we dimmed out of the last year.”
The 2021 Valspar Championship already has early commitments from World No. 1-ranked player Dustin Johnson and four-time major winner Brookes Koepka, in addition to two-time defending tournament champion, Paul Casey.
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