PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA (AP) — Every year, the Players Championship’s hallmark hole, the par-3 17th known as the island green, receives special attention leading up to the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament, which attracts virtually all of the game’s top players.
The hole’s grim history of catastrophe has been featured in promotions over the years, with one repeat after another of players sinking their fortunes in the water. Yes, there have been classic triumphs in the spots, such as Tiger Woods’ better-than-most putt, but the misery of the balls that didn’t land and the terrifying nature of the short hole have dominated.
In the latest ad for the 2022 Players, Tony Finau comments, “You see more water than grass.” “It screws with your head,” says the narrator.
Pete Dye operates in this manner. The famous architect challenged the players’ attention on every shot with his collection of razor-sharp edges, severe angles, problematic undulations on the greens, and an assortment of bunkers and hazards.
So it is on TPC Sawgrass’ Stadium Course, particularly on the 17th hole. The 137-yard hole, though, isn’t the only one with a tee shot that gets the blood pumping, the palms tingling, and the mind racing. Despite the constant klieg-light spotlight shining on the terror of the 17th, another tee shot is just as terrifying, if not more so.
“I would argue that 18 is scarier than 17,” Rory McIlroy, the 2019 Players winner, said.
He can make a compelling case for the 462-yard par-4 finale, which is framed on the left by a lake and on the right by a tangle of threatening rough, trees, bunkers, moguls, bumps, and humps. The narrower the fairway becomes the further you travel with your tee shot.
Since 2003, when ShotLink began tracking every shot on the PGA Tour, 815 balls have ended up in the water on the 18th hole, with the bulk coming from the tee. The 17th hole is the only one where more balls (868) have gone into the water.
The 18th hole, however, is the most difficult on the course, ranking first in difficulty with a field average of 4.336 strokes per since 2003, while the 17th ranks ninth at 3.113.
“You have to put your heart and soul into it,” McIlroy added. “This isn’t a right-wing bailout.” But, if you hit it down the right side and avoid the lake, I believe you can still get it up around the green and attempt for a 4, but it’s a difficult tee shot.
“It’s what Pete Dye’s golf courses are like. He gives it a pretty menacing appearance. I’ve always played that hole aggressively because I’d rather hit one very difficult shot than two difficult ones to make the hole play easier. Guys hit a 2-iron off the tee and still have to hit a 5-iron into the green. I’d rather hit a driver and a wedge, but that only means you have to hit a great drive.”
Do so right after you’ve dealt with the 17th.
“You feel relieved once you’ve finished with 17, but then you reach to 18 and it’s just as difficult a tee shot,” Daniel Berger remarked. “I cut the ball, and it’s a left-hand dogleg.” If you don’t make the cut you desire, you’ll have to re-tee.
“I start it over the water,” says the narrator. In other years, I’ve approached it in a different way. I used to hit a 3-wood off the tee, then a driver, and finally a 3-iron. It all depends on how strong the wind is. It was so firm and fast one year that I hit 3-iron and 9-iron into the green. At the very least, it’s a bogey if you hit it into the water. If you miss it to the right, however, it’s nearly an automatic bogie. If you want to win the golf tournament coming down the 18th hole, you’ll need to step up and hit a good tee shot. “It’s a tremendous finishing hole,” says the player.
Rickie Fowler won the 2015 Players Championship after birdieing the 17th hole three times in the final round, including twice in a playoff. When asked which tee shot on the course was the second scariest, he responded the 17th because the 18th was the scariest.
“Well, OK,” Fowler said, “it’s a toss-up.” “The tee shot on the 18th is more difficult. Because it is quite straightforward, the 17th may be more frightening. I mean, when you look at it, the hole isn’t that far away, and you’re trying to go a little closer to the pin, but there’s water nearby. If there was no pin on the green and your sole job was to hit a ball on the green, Tour players would do it almost every time unless there were extreme circumstances.
“Even if all you had to do was stand on the 18th tee and hit it in the fairway, that’s not an easy task.” It’s clearly a fantastic design all around this golf course, and to have the two shots that can make or break your round right there at the end, it’s simply a fantastic location.”
Any hole on the Stadium Course, according to Stewart Cink, may be frightening. However, by the age of 18, the hair on your arms and back of your neck begins to stand up more frequently.
“With the length of the hole, you can’t really drop back to a short club just to make sure you get the ball in play unless you’re straight downwind,” Cink explained. “So if it’s not straight downwind, you’re either going to have to suck it up and play a fantastic shot there or you’re going to pay a fairly high price because right is really no good and left is obviously no good.” It isn’t the narrowest fairway, but you will pay a high price if you miss a fairway there.”
The tee shot on 18 is “much harder,” according to Viktor Hovland.
“It’s just so tight, and obviously you know how penal the left side is,” Hovland said, adding that the tee shot on 17 only requires a 9-iron at most. “If you pull it, one thing is that you get to drop up there because you hit a solid shot and it rolls in the water.” It’s a re-hit if you hit it straight off the tee. Obviously, the right side isn’t any better.
“You just have to take a step forward and hit a nice shot.” You have a wedge on the 17th, and you may always go for the centre of the green. So every day, I’ll hit a ball down the fairway on 18.”
Last year’s Players champion Justin Thomas reached the fairway on the 72nd hole, but it wasn’t without a few nervous moments.
Thomas carried a one-shot lead on the 18th tee after making a tough 8-footer for par on the 17th. He chose a 5-wood and launched himself into a high-octane swing. Then, as his right-to-left shot approached the water, his heart nearly stopped.
“I’m not going to lie. I assumed it would be 50/50 whether it would be dry or wet. “All I knew was that I had utterly smoked it,” Thomas explained. “Obviously, the higher you go, the better your chances are, and I knew that if you can get that tiny downslope that I did or that I kind of struck on, it can start rolling.”
Instead of screaming into the lake, the ball soared down the fairway after a fortuitous bounce from the crown of the first cut.
“When you win tournaments, that sort of thing happens.” “Lucky breaks like that happen,” he explained. “But, to say the least, it was a little too near for comfort.”
A few weeks later, Thomas supplied confirmation when he published the findings of Whoop, the fitness strap he was wearing that tracks, among other things, heart rate and stress. As Thomas stated, his heart rate spiked significantly following the tee shot. When the ball stayed dry, Thomas let out a sigh of relief and rested his head on his caddie’s shoulder.
He composed himself and finished with a par, a 68 a day after shooting 64, and a one-shot victory.
Woods, a two-time Players champion and good buddy, has been berating Thomas over his tee shot ever since.
“He stated I toed my tee shot on 18, but I didn’t,” Thomas explained. “I nailed it in the middle” (of the face). I only rotated it slightly, but he insists that I toed it. I made it a point to tell him that I didn’t.
“It was exactly what I needed.”
