PALM HARBOR, Fla. - For USF student Cole Wilbur, an internship with the Valspar Championship, was exactly the kind of education this Sport and Entertainment Management major needed.

"I want to go into the golf industry," Wilbur said. "So, this was kind of the perfect way to get my foot in the door."

It’s been quite the learning curve, emphasis on the curve.

"I didn’t really have any experience with golf coming into this so I’ve learned kind of the ins and outs and what happens behind the scenes of a tournament," he said.

And bonus learning - how to manage a golf tournament during a pandemic. On what was supposed to be the first round of the Valspar Championship, Wilbur was prepared to help out the sponsors and make sure they had everything they needed. Instead…

"I’m helping get some granola bars passed out to Pinellas County schools," Wilbur said.

Instead of long drives and birdies, this year’s Valspar was all about granola bars and cake pops. Food that would have been consumed by golfers and fans at the tournament was donated to the Pinellas County School District for students in need.

"We originally we were going to put on a great tournament for fans, but obviously that’s shifted," Wilbur said. "And to be able to help in some other way, whether it be handing granola bars to kids or something, at least there’s some positivity in this time of a lot of negativity."

Valspar interns and officials loaded up tournament vehicles with boxes of granola bars and delivered them to a loading dock where they will be distributed throughout Pinellas County.

After their Pinellas County stop, they headed over the bridge to Tampa General Hospital, to deliver cake pops to doctors, nurses and medical personnel who have been working around the clock.

"To know that an organization like Valspar thought about us and wants to bring food over to us to just say thank you and to keep us nourished and to keep us going, is great," Tampa General Hospital President/CEO John Couris said.

Who knew a tiny cake pop could bring such joy. A little bit of sugar and a big dose of kindness were the perfect recipe for some needed relief.

"We’ll get through this," Couris said, "and we’re going to get through it together and little gestures like this go a very, very long way."