When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Bill Fields hangs out at No. 17 during The Players and files this look at the hole and the history of the island green.
Also included with the story is this wild photo I've never seen, credited to the "Golf Digest Resource Center" (is that where you pick up homeopathic remedies for your swing?).
...how long? I've been told by a few people it was 4 hours, 40 minutes. The last pairing teed off at 2:30 according to PGATour.com and Paul Goydos missed his par putt on 18 at 7:10.
But to confirm, I thought this pretty relevant statistic would be mentioned in a game story. I've searched them here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. No luck. Plenty of mentions of 40 m.p.h. winds, but no mention of an equally important stat noting that the grueling round took an hour longer than a normal PGA Tour twosomes round.
Isn't that kind of important to know, particularly with all of the recent slow play talk?
I took in most of The Players finale glued to the tiny TV's in the Lodge at Torrey Pines bar surrounded by hard core fans, including a few here for U.S. Open media day Monday. I forgot how fun it is to watch an exciting finish with serious fans, even though I sorely missed my HD.
Then again, TPC Sawgrass is a bit underwhelming in HD compared to others, perhaps because high-def reminds you how oversodded in green turf it has become compared to its more rustic days. And then there are those clean, white bunkers. Or the bloody catch basin drain caps that catch way too many balls. Pete! Surface drainage is not against the law.
Anyway, a few things stood out in Sergio's compelling playoff win over Paul Goydos.
The finale was your classic car wreck conclusion where the last person not to hit the turn-17 wall won. Or was it really car crash golf? Bob Harig wrote about Sergio's dominating ball striking performance, and something about watching this was different in feel than recent Masters or U.S. Open wrecks.
He led the field in fairways hit (43-of-56) despite winds that produced white caps on the numerous water hazards that dot the course. He tied for first in greens in regulation (56-of-72) despite rock-hard surfaces that repelled golf balls and left players and caddies in a futile search for pitch marks.
"He deserves it," said Goydos, who held a 3-stroke lead with six holes to play but could not hold on. "He played better than everyone else. Just look at the stats."
And...
Goydos, 43, got an up-close look at the greatness that is Garcia's long game during Saturday's third round, when the Spaniard hit 10 for 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens. Those are unheard-of numbers in such windy conditions. Garcia began the tournament by hitting 16 of 18 greens. In Friday's second round, he hit all 14 fairways.
As goofy as TPC Sawgrass appeared at times (and I'm sure the field staff did their best to keep it from becoming outright unplayable), it seemed like ball striking mattered more than putting (except on 18 where the wind rendered an already brutal hole pretty much impossible).
The other noticeable aspect of watching The Players in a golf-friendly bar was how much people love the underdog. Granted, Goydos is a SoCal boy, but he was definitely the fan favorite. John Ashworth, among others, stopped in just to see how he was doing. The serious fans clearly cherish great stories like Goydos'. The tour should remember that next time they are slicing fields down and granting medical/family/some other excuse exemptions to David Duval.
Finally, there's the idea of playing 17 as your first sudden death playoff hole. Again, the bar crowd loved this but it put a serious dent in the major championship cache the event is going for. As must as I love the 17th hole, it's hard to fathom how the tour can love this as a proper way to end such an elite championship.
A three-hole aggregate playoff of 16-18 would add so much major-like cache, but I understand the television related issues. And as I said, the golf savvy bar patrons loved it, and they are the ones that matter.
I can't find any good tight shots of Bernhard Langer during round 3 of The Players, but he has at least 7 that I can see (three on the chest, two on the left sleeve and one on the back). Photos from TheGolfChannel.com:
Not surprisingly Ceri Mobley talked to Mr. Style (a.k.a. Marty Hackel) about the tour's best and worst dressed for PGATour.com (yes, negative feedback on the tour's site!), and Marty includes Langer on his worst list. And not because of the logo orgy.
Meanwhile, Bob Verdi posts a GolfDigest.com "postcard" on one of the coolest sounding spectating gadgets I've ever heard of (hint: a gizmo to let you watch the telecast or just the 17th hole coverage while you're walking around).
golf.com's images from round two featured this Mark Humphrey shot of former President Bush and Commissioner Finchem. The golf.com caption says they were out on No. 17 watching golf. I know you guys can do better.
Where The Players actually belongs to the players, the Masters and Augusta National belong to a bunch of weird guys who are prone to despotism. Additionally, the Masters has looked a bit long in the tooth in recent years. In a misguided effort to modernize the course, Augusta National unleashed a supremely mediocre architect to modify one of the best and most original golf designs ever.
The changes to the course have been horrendous on a number of levels. The most damaging has been the fact that the changes sucked the drama out of the tournament in the name of “defending par.” Augusta is now so long and difficult, there are few birdie opportunities and the players take over five hours to make their way around the course in twosomes. If the lords of Augusta National were capable of embarrassment (which they almost surely are not), this last fact would shame them no end. The course is now harder (and more boring), but is it a better and fairer test of golf? Does it effectively identify the world’s best golfers? Leader boards the last couple of years populated almost exclusively by no-names and an angry Tiger Woods suggest otherwise.
Because demand has fallen so quickly, the walkup room rate is far lower than the price many of us had reserved six months earlier. By checking back in later today, the rate will be $50 cheaper per night. Hotels are slashing rates, a sure sign that supply exceeds demand.
Tournaments that have never had Woods in the field haven't felt the impact of his absence in such stark and contrasting terms, because they don't truly know what they have been missing. The merchants in tiny, tony Ponte Vedra Beach, a sliver of a town located on a barrier island outside Jacksonville, now fully understand his financial importance.
Concrete evidence that attendance is lacking is tougher to come by. The tour does not release an actual turnstile count. A St. Johns County sheriff deputy said Friday that the number of cars in the off-site parking lot is actually greater than last year, but sensed that there were fewer people in attendance. Yet, on the course, even if the gallery figures have remained equal to past years, the vibe, minus Woods, predictably hasn't.
You can always feel the difference with your ears. Now the locals are feeling it in their wallets. It begs the question: If you paid a steep $75 for a single-day ticket and Woods couldn't play, would you still make the trip?
The body count in other quarters has signaled a resounding no. The numbers for national media in attendance speak for themselves. None of the papers from Los Angeles or Chicago are covering the so-called fifth major. Even the Miami Herald, located just six hours down Interstate 95, took a pass, as did St. Petersburg, the state's biggest newspaper. Sports strongholds like Charlotte, Dallas, Houston and Philadelphia also took a pass. Amazingly, San Diego, set to host a U.S. Open in a month, isn't here either.
They're excited over at golf.com about Fred Vuich's round 1 GigaPan image with Phil Mickelson putting on both the 16th and 17th greens, but what I found more amazing was the view of No. 17's putting surface from this angle.
If you zoom in, note how much of the green slope you can see, and how much it moves from left to right (as the players view it from the tee). This probably explains why guys have so much trouble from the drop area.
Steve Elling posts a blog item about Stephen Ames not caring for the firmness of the TPC Sawgrass greens after his opening 74.
"I have said all along, with the changes, this course was going to be borderline," he said of its fairness factor after the 2007 revisions. "And that's exactly what it is. The balls don’t even make pitchmarks on the green, they're so hard."
A handful of other players saw shots on the 17th carom off the green and into the water, including Matt Kuchar, whose ball bounced twice on the green, and still plopped into the lake.
Ames said his approach shot on the 18th landed 50 feet short of the pin, yet rolled all the way off the back of the green. As he stomped away from the scoring area, Ames spotted a tour employee and let loose some steam.
"It's too &*%$#+ hard," Ames said, within earshot of several reporters. "Go ahead, keep building courses like this."
During Wednesday's contest to see which caddies could hit No. 17 green, it also served as a fundraiser for the Bruce Edwards Foundation for ALS Research.
Peter Morrice at GolfDigest.com offers up some insights on the day, including what some players did and did not drop cash into the collection jar.
The following players gave $100, the biggest number we know of: Ernie Els, Camilo Villegas, Tom Pernice, Ryuji Imada, Nathan Green and Kevin Stadler. At the other end, some players didn't put anything in the jar, including Fred Couples, Mark Calcavecchia, Retief Goosen, Charles Howell III and Zach Johnson ("I don't have my wallet"). To be fair, we're only naming players we saw donate (or not donate) or heard about from a reliable source, and only during part of the day; some caddies made donations, which they could have been doing for their players; some pros might be giving in other ways or at other times. Whatever the case, it was great tour-player watching.
Teacher Butch Harmon donated a hundred bucks and promised another hundred to any caddie in the group he was walking with who hit (and held) the green. None did. Bart Bryant was light on cash when he got to 17, so he slipped $10 in the pot but in a classy move sent someone back with 100 more. Sergio Garcia was playing with Villegas, and when Camilo produced a Ben Franklin, Sergio said, "That's for me and him" and left it at that. Here's a few more donations we're pretty sure about, although these players could've slipped an extra twenty by us: Vijay Singh ($40), Angel Cabrera ($25), Trevor Immelman ($20) and Stewart Cink ($20).
One player (hint: He almost won a major last year) said he didn't have any money on him, so he hit up one of his playing partners for $100. Then put $20 of it in the jar. We can only assume he later made good on the loan--or else cleared a smooth 80 bucks.
Sorry, I know I said the fifth major watch was over. But I just had to document that headline from the USA Today.
Rex Hoggard reports on one of the better Players Championship traditions: the caddies teeing up on 17 during Wednesday's practice round. On the other end of the spectrum, Gary Van Sickle hears that the world's highest paid luggage handlers are being treated, well, like luggage handlers by the PGA Tour.
With the course renovations, a new May date and that shopping mall erected behind the 18th green, the media had little choice but to shelve the traditional fifth major stories last year. But they've come back with a vengeance.
Judging by the cast of notables filing their answer to golf's least important question, I'd guess some editors have been telling their correspondents to settle the vital question of The Players' major status.
Larry Bohannan files this grabber of a lede:
Is The Players Championship, being played this week literally up the street from the headquarters of the PGA Tour in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., the fifth major of men's golf?Ken Willis offers five reasons The Players is a major. Get it? Five. I smell a GWAA award. Bruce Young drops "fifth major" in his opening sentence, then fails to put us through the misery of laying out a case. What a tease.
Lawrence Donegan (say it ain't so!) refers to the "age-old" question of fifth major status. Not sure about the age part, but it's definitely an old question.
Jim McCabe at least allows me to end this post with some realistic perspective. We'll ignore his line about the 17th being a "hideous excuse of a golf hole," point you to Lorne Rubenstein's column on No. 17, and let Jim put the fifth major story watch to rest...until next year:
When you touch five bases after hitting a grand slam, we’ll add a fifth tournament to the major championship landscape. Until then, there are four and only four major championships — the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA Championship. Everything else is a golf tournament.
Garry Smits reports that after last year's long list of changes, this year sees relatively few alterations to the event. Not mentioned is whether Kenny G will be used again to make the champion regret winning.
golf.com has more of those cool Fred Vuich Gigapan images let you analyze over-renovated bunkers or analyze the clubhouse exterior design that only a Saudi prince could love.
The 17th Hole gets it's usual bit of attention, with Bill Pennington offering this from Butch Harmon:
“What’s amazing is that if that green were surrounded by sand instead of water, those guys would never miss the green,” the coach Butch Harmon said of the 17th hole. “They’re such good sand players, it wouldn’t faze them a bit. But it isn’t sand. So all week at the Players Championship, everyone avoids the subject. Those guys don’t even want to talk about it.”John Huggan isn't a fan:
Add in the inherent daftness and lowbrow appeal of the island green 17th hole, a circus-like golfing gimmick where any pretence at sophistication is notably absent, and the Players won't be making any steps up in status any time soon.Meanwhile at ESPN.com Jason Sobel is soliciting favorite 17th hole stories.
Sorry Tim. Maybe you'll have better luck in your next life as an unelected tin-pot dictator in a 'fifth-world' country. Oh… hang on, that sounds suspiciously like this life.
But for all its attractions, Sawgrass will never quite measure up for some. “The last thing we need is another American Major,” said Lee Westwood.
“If we’re going to have one, it should be in Australia. They have some great courses there and you could rotate the venue.
Finally, Derek Lawrenson must be really happy with his room at the Marriott because he offers five reasons "why this week's Players' — like last year's Players' — will knock the Masters into a cocked hat."
Mark Soltau reports that Tiger hasn't ruled out an appearance at the Memorial.
And speaking of the fifth of four majors, I didn't even to launch the annual fifth major watch before Dave Shedloski had to go and file the gem of all fifth major stories, with Tiger asking: "Is the fifth major my fifth major?" Hit the link to find out his answer. I know you're anxious to find out.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
