Just one factor is for certain when a participant steps onto the seventeenth tee at TPC Sawgrass: something can occur.
A dramatic hole-in-one. A tournament-altering catastrophe. Even a record-setting 12, like Bob Tway’s notorious collapse within the 2005 PLAYERS Championship. Yr after yr, the seventeenth and its island inexperienced have shattered desires, topped champions, and delivered a few of golf’s most unforgettable moments.
However how did this legendary par 3 come to be? And if you happen to had a scuba go well with and a free afternoon, simply what number of Professional V1s might you fish out of its depths? We’ve acquired all the main points in regards to the seventeenth gap at TPC Sawgrass.
TPC Sawgrass seventeenth Gap: A Transient Historical past
Arguably essentially the most recognizable gap in golf, the seventeenth at TPC Sawgrass wasn’t initially designed to be the stadium-like spectacle it’s right this moment. When Pete Dye started shaping the course within the late Nineteen Seventies, the plan referred to as for a extra typical par 3 with a small lake guarding the inexperienced. However a cost-saving choice modified all the things.
The world across the seventeenth was wealthy in sand – an important materials for shaping the course and its rolling spectator mounds. As excavation intensified, a small lake became a cavernous pit, leaving Dye with an sudden problem: what to do with the huge void. That’s when Alice Dye, Pete’s spouse, advised the boldest resolution of all: fill it with water.
The outcome? One of the crucial thrilling and nerve-wracking holes in golf. When TPC Sawgrass hosted its first PLAYERS Championship in 1982, the seventeenth shortly grew to become the defining stage of the match. And the remainder is historical past.
TPC Sawgrass seventeenth Gap: By the Numbers
137: That’s what number of yards this par-3 is, making it the shortest gap on the course.
100,000: The estimated variety of golf balls dunked within the water surrounding the island inexperienced yearly, which equates to roughly half one million {dollars}’ value of balls. Remember that most golfers who come right here preserve hitting till they discover the inexperienced…no less than as soon as. That mentioned, some estimates put the quantity nearer to 120,000.
78: The island inexperienced’s size in toes.
14: Gap-in-ones all through the length of the PLAYERS Championship.
4: How deep the water is in toes. So, perhaps no scuba go well with wanted in any case. Only a sturdy ball retriever.
TPC Sawgrass seventeenth Gap: Notable Moments
Fred {Couples}’ Gap-In-Three (1999): The seventeenth isn’t all doom and gloom. After lacking the inexperienced and discovering the water together with his tee shot, Fred {Couples} took his drop and made an unbelievable restoration. His third shot dunked straight into the cup, turning what might’ve been a catastrophe into one of the crucial inconceivable pars within the PLAYERS Championship historical past.
Tiger Woods’ ‘Higher Than Most’ Putt (2001): One of the crucial well-known calls in golf historical past got here when Tiger Woods drained a 60-foot triple-breaking putt throughout the third spherical of the PLAYERS Championship.
Sergio Garcia vs. the Water (2013): Tied for the lead on Sunday, Garcia discovered the water twice on 17, carding a quadruple-bogey that in the end value him the match.
Rickie Fowler’s Clutch Efficiency (2015): Fowler birdied the seventeenth a number of occasions on Sunday, together with twice in a playoff, to say victory in what’s broadly thought-about the most effective remaining rounds in match historical past.
Sort out the well-known island inexperienced your self with a golf journey to TPC Sawgrass and discover a number of the different greatest golf programs in Jacksonville and Ponte Vedra Seashore. Don’t overlook to ship your golf golf equipment to and from residence with ShipSticks to make the journey to Florida simply as nice as being there.
