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The island green par-3 17th hole at The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass is rightfully one of the most famous, and infamous, holes in golf. The water surrounding the no-mercy putting surface sucks balls out of resort guests’ bags like bonbons moving too fast on a conveyor belt, and tour players each year during The Players Championship look forward to it like a visit to the dentist.
For them, hitting even short irons and wedges into the green is like driving three hours to a Thanksgiving with an extended set of in-laws—they face it stoically, but know things could go terribly wrong at any moment.
And what do they get for enduring this merciless little devil? A date with destiny at an even tougher hole, the long par-4 18th.
TPC Sawgrass’s 18th doesn’t possess the quickly lethal apparatus of the 17th. No, it kills in a multiple of ways, slowly, drawing out the misery and making you stagger along even as the wounds are obviously mortal.
The par 4 curves at an awkward yet inspired angle around a lake and is flanked by trouble every step of its 460-plus yards. It’s annually one of the hardest 18th holes on the PGA Tour and forces the professionals to hit a series of nearly perfect shots at a time in the round when they’ve been numbed and likely shellshocked by all the Pete Dye shrapnel that’s been exploding around them for the previous four-and-a-half hours.
But there’s another side to the extremity of TPC’s 18th hole, one not of sadism but artistry.
How it came to be the way it is and how it grew into a more refined version of the slayer it’s become is a good story. Once you know it, watching how the pros try to deal with 18 becomes all the more entertaining.
Please join us as we present everything you ever wanted to know, and probably then some, about the 18th hole at The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
You can watch the full video below:
