Leading off

The PGA Tour begins its' Florida swing this week, but not in the usual place.

If the PGA Tour is switching coasts, Doral must be up.

Except it isn't. Not anymore.

After two decades of starting at Doral and working its way northward, the tour has shaken up the order. Honda gets leadoff duties now, with Doral shifting to the anchor spot as a World Golf Championships showcase.

The swank Players Championship used to bat cleanup but has a May date in the new schedule. That created an opening for Tampa, where the renamed PODS Championship moves from the fall into the old Honda dates.

Got that?

''The Florida Swing is totally different,'' Rocco Mediate said. ``But there's nothing wrong with any of this stuff.''

By and large, players believe the rejiggering will make for an even stronger Swing. But especially for the veterans, the new rotation will take some getting used to.

''It's kind of odd,'' said Kenny Perry. ``I've been out here 22 years, and Doral was always my first [Florida] stop. But we're not too far from Miami, kind of in the same neighborhood.''

NBC analyst Johnny Miller said: ``I think the tournaments are the best they've ever been. I like the crescendo to the World Golf Championships at Doral. It's going to be fun.''

In the 1980s and '90s, the adage was that golf season didn't truly begin until the tour reached Doral. Now that honor falls to the Honda, where the event aims to become revitalized.

The tournament also has a new home -- PGA National Resort -- a new management team and the Nicklaus family taking an active role. But the Honda needed to move out of the No. 2 slot, where it was sandwiched between the drawing power of Doral and Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill.

''No doubt it's a better date for us,'' executive director Ken Kennerly said. ``History showed the second week in March was not a good one.''

Kennerly is right, the old sandwich status of the Honda Classic didn't prove to be a good one. Will the new one be better? Now the tournament is a week after the Match Play and two weeks before another World Golf Championship event. I think if players have to choose a week off between Honda and Bay Hill, Honda will be the loser.

As for the tournament, I won't be attending. My leg is still recovering from my recent hospital stay. So there will be chance encounter with Johnny Miller and me telling him what a liar and fraud he is.

Linked to- Basil, Bullwinkle,