The gorgeous bank holiday weekend might be over but don’t fret – this week your favourite PGA pros hit up the legendary TPC Sawgrass for the 37th time to tee off at the 2018 Players Championship. So what makes this course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida so special? Read on to find out more…
Swampy Beginnings
In the late 1970s then commissioner of the PGA Tour, Deane Beman, began searching for the perfect permanent home for The Players Championship. When the owners of the Sawgrass Country Club declined to sell, Beman took his vision elsewhere and bought 417 acres of swampland from property developers Paul and Jerome Fletcher for just $1.
“The first time I saw this piece of property, you went in at your own peril,” Beman recalled to Golf.com in 2008.
But with the help of legendary course designers Pete and Alice Dye, Beman’s vision of a Tournament Players Club soon came to fruition. The first of now more than 30 TPC courses to be built, Sawgrass is an absolute vision of perfection for anyone who loves the game.
The spectator was given top billing during the design process, with the Dye’s paying particular attention to giving fans the best possible views of the golf course. Sawgrass was the first “stadium course” design boasting strategically placed viewing areas around different tees and greens plus the capacity to host an astounding 36,000 fans.
Beyond the spectator angle, the vision for TPC Sawgrass was a balanced course that didn’t favour one particular player or style of play. No two consecutive holes play in the same direction, making it a true challenge for even the most seasoned of golfers.
Mixed Reviews
The first Players Championship tournament was held at TPC Sawgrass in 1982 and many players were less than complimentary about its unique design. The ages top players including Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Lee Trevino all missed the cut. J.C. Snead reckoned the course was “90 percent horse manure and 10 percent luck.” By the next year Dye had tweaked some features of the course, making the greens less severe and redesigning a few of the bunkers. Leading Ben Crenshaw to declare, “Now it’s a darn good course.”
Today, the world’s best players still find TPC Sawgrass a difficult yet amazing golf course to play. As the “unofficial fifth major” on the PGA Tour schedule, The Players is a week both the pros and golf fans alike look forward to.
“I mean, it is one of the toughest tests in golf, with potentially the best field in golf. I think it is the best golf in all of golf,” three-time major winner Jordan Spieth told reporters earlier this week. Adding, “If you win here, you can win anywhere else. There is no added thing that any other tournament brings that this tournament doesn’t have.”
The Real Star of The Players - #17
Perhaps the most recognised hole in all of golf, the par-3 number 17 at TPC Sawgrass has given way to some amazing wins as well as a few of the most disastrous endings, just ask Sean O’Hair and Sergio Garcia!
The brainchild of Alice Dye, number 17 is surrounded by water on three sides with spectators lining the outer edges. With nothing more than a 78-foot long green with a tiny bunker in front, this is the weekend’s make or break hole. Leading many to observe you don’t win on 17, you lose on it. Or as Luke Donald once put it, “It’s do-or-die.”
With golf being a game of precision, the 17th lends its way to being possibly the most unforgiving hole there is. Hit it too long, water, hit it too short, water, too far to the right, water, too far to the left- you get the picture. Listen to Alice Dye explain how the concept for this unique hole was born.
TPC Sawgrass is the ultimate mind game for even the most seasoned golfer. With 600 FedEx Cup points and a whooping $10.5 million purse up for grabs, you can bet the pressure is on as the players tee off this week. We can’t wait to see how they fare this year on the 17th!
Don’t miss out on your chance to win a brand new Odyssey O-Works Putter, worth up to £179. Enter GolfOnline’s The Players Championship Competition before it ends on Friday!
