After 12 years in May, The Players Championship is returning to its original March roots this week. With a huge lineup of the world’s best golfers, including
Justin Rose,
Tiger Woods,
Jordan Spieth and last year’s winner,
Webb Simpson, we’re taking a look at what makes TPC Sawgrass one of the PGA Tour’s best tournament spots.
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 world’s top players at the time, 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,” Spieth told reporters in 2018. 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 Player - #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.
This year the guys from Skratch TV had a little fun with golfers about to play the legendary hole. The results were hysterical!
TPC Sawgrass is the ultimate mind game for even the most seasoned golfer. With a whooping $2.5 million being awarded to the 2019 winner this coming Sunday, you can bet the pressure is on as the players tee off tomorrow. We can’t wait to see how they fare this year on the 17th!
