The Bermuda Golf Classic was such a success that organisers hope to expand it next year to a 36-hole event.

Last week’s inaugural tournament, an 18-hole affair won by Lawrence Taylor, was widely praised by the players involved.

The likes of Taylor, Billy Joe Tolliver, and Duane Starks all said they would be back next year, with the Classic already penciled in for April 13 to 17 at Port Royal Golf Course. The dates represent one change that the organisers have already made, moving the Classic to the week after the Masters.

“After 18 years of playing and ten years retired from the NFL, I have finally discovered the perfect NFL event,” Lee Johnson, the former Cincinnati Bengal, said.

The hope is that Johnson and the rest of the players will return to the United States and encourage other players to get involved.

“I’m proud to say I was part of the inaugural Bermuda Golf Classic,” Fred Taylor, the former Jacksonville Jaguars running back, said.

“I look forward to being a participant in the years to come. Port Royal is the perfect host site and I’m quite positive that as the event grows, other NFL legends will echo and share these thoughts.”

For organisers Alex Madeiros, the director of golf at Port Royal, Clarence Hofheins, the Cambridge Beaches general manager, and Brady Whittingham, this year was all about proving that the tournament could succeed.

“We have shown the event can work, we’ve shown the sponsors it can work, and hopefully others in the NFL will now sit up and take notice,” Whittingham said.

Having proved it could be successful, expansion is the next step. The 26 players that supported this year’s event will be “grandfathered in” recognising the chance they took in coming to a first year event, and organisers hope to have 40 players in next year’s field.

The plan is to target marquee players to fill those remaining 14 spots.

“We have a year to get ready this time, there is a lot we can do in a year,” Madeiros said.

The field for amateurs will also be capped at 40, with organisers expected to tweak the Pro Am event to include two-man amateur teams rather than foursomes.

Madeiros, Hofheins and Whittingham are confident that the event can grow in stature to the point that it becomes a permanent fixture on the NFL calendar, and Curtis Dvorak, aka Jaxson De Ville, the Jacksonville Jaguars mascot, has no doubts that it will.

“I think it’s a no-brainer,” he said. “I look forward to being a part of this event for years to come.”