17th hole mindbender

And now the dreaded 17th at Sawgrass. The ultimate test of every PGA competitors skill and nerves. Not that it reads like much on the scorecard at a measly 130 yards. Just hit a high shot and stick it without an unexpected bounce or roll. No big deal for these great players ...right? Wrong!

Witness Len Mattice, who was one off the lead when he scored an eight in the final round of the 98 Player's. And Bob Tway's record holding twelve in 2005. There is some unmistakable magic that wraps around this island green on The Players Championship weekend. Most fans in attendance tend to gather and stay at the 17th to witness the folly and misadventure. Calcavecchia likens it to having a three o'clock appointment for a root canal. Brett Ogle thinks it's the scariest hole in golf.

Amateurs flock to the Stadium Course so they can say they've experienced the hellish par 3. The club estimates that 120,000 balls enter the 17th's watery surround every year. And with approximately 40,000 yearly players that averages somewhere around three wet ones per player. That's a lot of inventory for the lake-ball resellers.

I once played Houston's Tour 18, which boasts 18 careful simulations of some of the most famous holes in golf. The par three 9th is a duplicate of Sawgrass's 17th and although I landed my ball on the green, I could only imagine the crushing pressure that real pros might feel with a bloodthirsty gallery haunting the final groups on Sunday at Ponta Vedra. Wild horses named Street Sense couldn't drag me from the TV for Sunday's final round.

Comments

[Spivie Jones]

Very entertaining and informative piece on the dreaded 17th. I've played the tough par 3, surrounded by water at pga west and thought it was difficult. It now ranks second to 17 at the tpc. I have played tpc several times and club selection has never been the same. At 140 + yards I've hit 6 iron to pitching wedge. Out of three rounds, two balls in the water and a "skank" wedge that made birdie! Intimidating!!! It's like trying to land a 747 on an aircraft carrier.

[golfspinner]

It's all about your alignment. The hole has a very wide water view where it's tough to pick the line of flight, even for the big boys. Add the unpredictable cross winds and end-of-tournament pressure and you get those meltdowns.

I have deposited several balls in the water on the Tour 18 replicourse version myself, so I also can appreciate that feeling of total failure. One in, two out, three in, four out...