Golf’s answer to Mike Tyson: 17th hole at The Players strikes fear into legends | CPT PPP Coverage

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Standing on the 17th tee at TPC Sawgrass is probably golf’s equivalent to stepping in the ring with Mike Tyson. It might be short, but my word is it fearsome.

Despite just 140-odd yards separating player and pin, the penultimate hole at The Players Championship can bring the world’s best golfers to their knees.

Byeong An put FOUR balls in the water and carded an 11 during the 2021 tournament which isn’t even the worst ever score on 17.

Bob Tway infamously took 12 shots there in 2005. What do you even call that? A nonuple bogey?

On paper, it’s a straightforward task – nothing more than a wedge to a seventy-foot green. It’s a professional golfer’s bread and butter. So why, since 2003, have more than 900 balls ended up in the drink?

That might have something to do with the 120 yards of water which guards the green. Left, right, front, behind – there’s no margin for error, no bail-out.

It’s one of the few all-or-nothing tee shots in golf, and island fever strikes even the most mentally-fierce competitors.

The 17th plays with your mind, fills you with dread, and messes with your game.

“You knew you were in trouble when you got on the tee,” Jack Nicklaus, golf’s all-time leading major winner, once said.

“No matter what, you knew sooner or later it was going to get you. And it was going to get you good, probably.”

Brooks Koepka, meanwhile, has said: “I’ve got to be up there as one of the worst to ever play that hole. I dread that one.”

The stroke average on this short par-three at the Stadium Course is 4.1. Most players are happy to just get out of there with a bogey and avoid catastrophe.

Tiger Woods found the water twice during his second round in 2019, making a quadruple bogey and ending any chance of a challenge. It does that.

But the most memorable moment from the 17th green probably belongs to Woods, who holed what some consider the best putt of all-time on his way to victory in 2001.

Then again, most iconic moments in golf’s recent history belong to Woods.

Back when he truly was the most remarkable golfer on the planet, Woods holed a seemingly-impossible putt which most would struggle to get within 10 feet. With the help of some fantastic commentary, it became known as the ‘better than most’ putt.

But how can you stop there? What about Fred Couples finding the water and then making par with a hole-in-one in 1999, Matt Kuchar’s one-handed behind the back chip in 2005, or that time a seagull flew off with Brad Fabel’s ball in 1998?

For the spectator, it’s sporting theatre at its finest – the aesthetics, the Florida sunshine, and the unpredictability.

It’s every part-time golfer’s dream to take aim at the iconic island green. The PGA Tour predicts that 100,000 balls end up in the lake at the 17th each year, which works out to a couple of balls per visitor.

Augusta is golf’s Mecca, but the 17th at the Stadium Course represents a similar rite of passage, and finding the water is just part of the pilgrimage. Imagine if you played Sawgrass and someone told you the 17th was closed?

Besides, given the calibre of the field and the list of previous winners, it’s no wonder many consider the tournament to be golf’s unofficial fifth major.