The notorious golf hole challenges amateurs
PGA Tour made statistics in January, announced the results on March 7.
Accordingly, with the playing area 131 yards from the flag, the rate of hitting the lake is approximately 60%. The number of entangled balls is higher than the number of players because there are 10 hands putting three or more balls into the water.
And at the end of the hole, the PGA Tour scored 27 quadruple bogey or worse, 23 par, 19 triple bogey, 11 double bogey and 12 bogey. And so, the average number of strokes on the 17th par3 is the same as the par5 at 5.37.
However, the PGA Tour also witnessed three birdies, of which the most impressive female face scored from behind the green to the front flag like Tiger Woods won the 2001 The Players Championship.
On the graph of the distribution of landing points, 38 shots entered the lake but did not reach the green. According to Golf Digest, that shows a lack of distance due to the wrong type of club compared to the actual capacity, not to mention the impact from the wind.
In the PGA Tour survey, there was a male amateur who said he hit 135-140 yards all day with a 9 iron. But when he hit with this on the 17th hole oasis, 131 yards from the flag and was about to enter the green because flag ahead, the ball doesn't go that far. It just landed on the front side of the green and then rolled to the target, nearly half a meter away for a birdie. According to the original design, hole 17 has a maximum length of 137 yards.
In 1985, The Players Championship once held an amateur tournament to determine the "worst golfer in the world". That year, Angelo Spagnolo took the cup when he hit 257 strokes through a round. Particularly on hole 17, Spagnolo lost a total of 66 strokes when he hit 27 balls into the water and then had to use a putter to drive the ball along the winding asphalt road on the starboard side of the lake to get to the green.
At The Players Championship 2022, the penultimate hole has 423 plays, including 57 shots in the water, and in the PGA Tour last season, it ranked 10th in difficulty in 204 par3 holes.
The organization that owns the first-class golf arena in the US opened The Players Championship in 1974. In 1982, the tournament "settled" on the Stadium course of the TPC Sawgrass golf complex in Florida, on the same campus as the PGA Tour headquarters.
This place was once a swamp but turned into the ultimate golf battleground thanks to the vision of Special Envoy Deane Beman and legendary architect Pete Dye. But on the 17th hole, the oasis green was born according to the idea of the designer's wife - Alice Dye, from the troubles of the beginning. According to the original design, hole 17 is a simple par3 with the green partially covered by the lake.
However, the surrounding geology is full of sand and this is used to make traps throughout the yard. This is a rare occurrence in the swamp. By the time the yard was nearing completion, the foundation of hole 17 collapsed, leaving a large depression in the surface while the foot section continued to gradually erode inward.
"Use partitions to reinforce the foundation and then pour dirt and sand on top?", suggested Alice - Dye's wife and colleague.
The Players Championship 2023 will start at 7pm today, 9/3, Hanoi time, with a prize fund of 25 million USD, of which the championship is 4.5 million USD.
