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PLAINVILLE - Former Bishop Feehan High and Johnson and Wales University star Jimmy Renner of Plainville will be making his PGA Tour event debut this week at the PODS Classic in Tampa, Fla.

Renner was the second-low scorer, with a 6-under-par round of 66, during a qualifying tournament last week in Florida at the Fox Hollow Golf and Country Club for one of the four "open" spots to the $5.3 million PGA event at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club.

Renner also attempted to qualify for the Honda Classic during an open tournament. The 24-year-old Renner, a three-time Attleboro Area Golf Association Open champion, will have a tee time of 8:50 a.m. during Thursday's first round of play, participating in a threesome with Nick Thompson and Matt Jones.

Defending champion Mark Calcavecchia is in the field along with Rhode Island's Billy Andrade and Brett Quigley as well as such PGA notables as Ernie Els, Paul Azinger, Retief Goosen and Rocco Mediate.

Renner has already qualified for and will participate on the Hooters Tour during the spring and summer months, a series of satellite tournaments to the regular PGA schedule. Renner was one of six players to qualify for that series, having a four-day, 11-under-par score. Renner will be one of 19 players making their debuts. Other first-time entrants of note include England's Paul Casey and PGA tour veteran David Duval.

Just two of the seven winners in tournament history are Americans: Calcavecchia and John Huston, who won the inaugural event in 2000. Of the 10 players who finished second (including ties), seven are Americans.

Calcavecchia challenged all week at The Honda Classic, but a late run of bogeys sent him to a fourth-place finish. Good ballstrikers historically play well on the par-71 Copperhead Course, which measures 7,340 yards.

The layout for the PGA Tour event is an atypical Florida layout featuring some dramatic elevation changes, tree-lined fairways and undulating greens, meaning a player has to drive it straight and then not only hit the putting surfaces, but place the ball in advantageous areas to make a run at birdies.

Only three players in the seven years that Innisbrook has hosted the event have posted four rounds in the 60s. Vijay Singh did it in 2004 and K.J. Choi, twice a winner of the PODS Championship, accomplished the feat in 2002. Jesper Parnevik is the third, finishing second to Singh. Interestingly, Parnevik is the only one of the three returning this week.

Renner is the son of 1984 AAGA Open champion John "Buck" Renner, born the year that his dad won his area championship.