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The 17th hole at the TPC at Sawgrass is one of the most famous holes in golf. It is seen each year during The Players Championship and is the only hole that regularly gets its own discussion thread on Golf Rewind year in and year out.

[edit] What Pros Say

"People want to see us hit it in the water." -Adam Scott

"If you're not careful, you can start thinking about it a month before you get here." -Ernie Els

"I think that would be a fantastic eighth hole but not as the 71st hole of a tournament or 17th hole of your round." -Tiger Woods

"You try to suppress that hole until the last minute. You really do. You try to suppress it until you walk off the 16th green." -Phil Mickelson

"No matter what, you knew sooner or later it was going to get you. And it was going to get you good, probably. When you're playing at noon on Sunday at the 17th hole, you knew you weren't much of a factor and you could care less if you hit it in the water. You didn't want to hit it in at 6 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday." -Jack Nicklaus

[edit] Interesting Facts

The yardage from the middle of the championship tee to the front of the green is 121 yards. It is 146 yards to the back of the green. From the drop area, yardage to the center of the green is 75 yards.

The green is 3,912 square feet while the course average is around 4,500 square feet. The front bunker is 55 square feet and is the smallest of the 92 sand traps on the course.

The water around the island green has a depth of 4 feet. Divers extract golf balls (and anything else they can find) from the water four times per year in January, April, July and October. It takes two days of work each time to clean all of the water hazards on the course.

About 150,000 balls are hit into the water during the course of a year. There are 45,000 rounds played at the TPC at Sawgrass so that means the average golfer hits more than 3 balls into the water there.

Angela Spagnolo shot a 66 on this hole in the "America's Worst Avid Golfer" contest held by Golf Digest. He hit a combined 27 balls in the water from the tee box and drop area but finally got the ball on the green when he putted around the hazard and down the walking path to the green.

[edit] The Players Championship

Tom Lehman has arguably been the most successful pro on this hole. Lehman has not hit a ball in the water in 54 tries. His stroke average of 2.76 makes him the only player to be under par on this hole for his career.

There have been six aces in the history of The Players Championship: Brad Fabel (1986, first round), Brian Claar (1991, third round), Fred Couples (1997, fourth round), Joey Sindelar (1999, first round), Paul Azinger (2000, third round) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (2002, first round).

The worst score ever recorded at the hole during competition was a 12 by Bob Tway in the third round of the 2005 Players. His first four attempts ended up in the water. After finally hitting the green on his fifth attempt, he three putted to go from 7 under par and 4 strokes out of the lead to 2 over par and 13 behind the leader. The previous record holder was Robert Gamez who made an 11 in the third round of the 1990 Players.

During the telecast, NBC positions 10 of 42 cameras for the tournament at the 17th hole. These cameras include a microscopic lens imbedded in the lip of the front bunker, another in a crane 120 feet in the air and a third from an island to the right of the green. The cameraman must be "ferried" the island where he will be "marooned" for about eight hours.

[edit] External Links

The Infamous 17th at Sawgrass thread