What is the hardest hole on TPC Sawgrass?
The par-3, island-green 17th is one of the most famous holes in the world. But it's merely a part of
Signature Hole: 17th Hole – 137 Yard Par 3 – The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass' famed Stadium course is simply one of the most recognizable holes in the world of golf. The brainchild of Pete Dye's wife Alice, TPC's island green has become an icon in the game and the most photographed hole on the east coast.
The par-5 16th is actually the easiest hole on the course, by scoring average, but is also responsible for the third-most balls in the water, behind only the two closing holes. At 523 yards, it's reachable for just about every player in the field.
Playing to a stroke average of 3.265, it was the 10th hardest out of 204 par-3s on the PGA Tour last season and by far the hardest under 150 yards. And that's for guys with the confidence to make the 122-yard carry to the green every time.
The hardest hole at a regular tour stop was the 529-yard par-4 on the Memorial Park Golf Course in Texas, host venue for the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open.
Par 5 efficiency is extremely important at TPC Sawgrass. With all four of the par 5s under 575 yards and three of them under 540 yards, a good amount of the scoring needs to come from these holes collectively. Last year's winner, Cameron Smith, was third in par-5 scoring in his past 24 rounds leading into the event.
Single Carry Caddies are available for those players wanting to walk the course with their own personal caddie. The Single Carry Caddie fee is $90 per player and recommended gratuity is $40 and up per player. It is the member's responsibility to render gratuities in cash only.
Players 2022: Drunker than most—How a fan crashed a playoff at TPC Sawgrass by jumping into the water at the 17th. Hal Valdes said he was trying to win a $500 bet from a fraternity brother when he went for a swin at the 17th hole in the middle of a playoff to decide the 1987 Players Championship.
There have been 13 hole-in-ones on the 17th at TPC Sawgrass. Hayden Buckley, Aaron Rai and Alex Smalley each recorded one one 2023.
➤ The longest putt on the 17th was 59 feet, 9 inches, made by Bernhard Langer during the second round of the 2008 tournament. Tiger Woods' 60-footer putt in 2001 was from the fringe so, technically, under PGA Tour rules, doesn't count as a putt. ➤ Langer has made the most career birdies on 17, with 24.
Are there alligators at TPC Sawgrass?
This is a modal window. Follow along as a professional diver collects golf balls from the water surrounding the 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. Note that there's an alligator close by!
Why the 17th at TPC Sawgrass is so hard appears to be simple at first – it's surrounded by water. Up to a point that is true. However, it's not actually the water, but the “fear of failure” that really makes it so difficult.

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Here's a statistic! Since 2003, 925 balls have been lost into the water at the island-like 17th green during the course of the Players Championship at Ponte Vedra in Florida.
Augusta National's 13th Hole
This majestic hole is possibly the most famous on the golf course with some truly stunning golf shots having been played here over the years.
The lower the handicap, the better the golfer; and the higher the handicap, the worse the golfer. If you have a high handicap, you need more than the suggested number of strokes (par) to finish the golf course. Scratch golfers have a handicap of zero. That means they finish the course or hole on par.
Most members think of the par 4 as the harder hole, because the par 5 is easier to par, but the par 4 is actually easier, because the tee is 60 yards closer to the green.
TPC Sawgrass operates like hotel and airline industries and has dynamic pricing. This means that any given day, that number can fluctuate, hence the $720 number. The $720 rate means the Stadium Course is the priciest tee time among public golf courses, even more than places like Shadow Creek and Pebble Beach.
Usual prices to play TPC Sawgrass, one of the best golf courses in the US, usually start at $600 from September to May, and $450 during the summer, but with limited availability for March tee times and coming right on the back of the Players Championship, prices are higher.
How much does TPC pay? The average TPC salary ranges from approximately $37,096 per year for a Server to $65,008 per year for an Assistant Golf Professional. The average TPC hourly pay ranges from approximately $18 per hour for a Server to $20 per hour for a Server/Bartender.
All attire that is acceptable on the Golf Course. Denim in good condition is permitted in the Clubhouse unless otherwise noted for a specific event. Specific attire may be required for special events, which will be noted.
Can the public play TPC Sawgrass?
Just 12 miles from Jacksonville, Fla., and 20 miles north of historic St. Augustine, TPC Sawgrass offers two championship golf courses that are open for the public to enjoy – THE PLAYERS Stadium Course, Home of THE PLAYERS Championship, and Dye's Valley Course.
Final Thoughts on TPC Sawgrass
It's one of the best target golf courses in the world, and to play a tour-level, championship course that isn't all about length was nice to see. The rate when we played was $413. I don't care who you are, that is a lot of money for a round of golf. In 2022?
While most stadiums don't allow smoking, Sawgrass is a huge open space which means smoking a cigar with your buddies isn't (terribly) annoying at all. Just make sure you're not blowing huge smoke clouds in the face of strangers. If you have some nice smokes, this is the place to bring them.
Despite the lore and the gore of the Players Championship, the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass is not the toughest layout played on the PGA Tour.
Tom Hoge's new magic number: 62. On a Saturday afternoon of low scores at The Players Championship, Hoge went lowest of all and surpassed a host of major champions to carve out his own page in the record books at The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
There are only three players in the history of the PGA Tour to record two holes-in-one in the same round: Bill Whedon at the 1955 Insurance City Open, Yusaku Miyazato at the 2006 Reno-Tahoe Open and Brian Harman at the 2015 The Barclays.
The longest hole-in-one on the PGA Tour is 332 yards (303.58 metres) by Andrew Magee (USA) on the Par-4 17th hole during the first round of the Phoenix Open at TPC of Scottsdale in Arizona, USA, on 25 January 2001.
The beloved par-3 is the shortest on the PGA TOUR at just 106 yards, and played as little as 92 yards during the 2010 U.S. Open. But Pebble Beach co-designer Jack Neville recognized what a special hole No. 7 could be before it even opened.
1) Hale Irwin
At the 1983 British Open, Hale Irwin of Joplin, Missouri, in fact missed a one-inch putt according to Guy Yocom of Golf Digest. The miss happened on the 14th hole in the third round.
Club information | |
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Length | 7,245 yards (6,625 m) |
Course rating | 76.4 |
Slope rating | 155 |
Course record | 63: Fred Couples (1992) Greg Norman (1994) Roberto Castro (2013) Martin Kaymer (2014) Jason Day (2016) Colt Knost (2016) Webb Simpson (2018) Brooks Koepka (2018) Dustin Johnson (2022) |
How deep is the water around 17 at Sawgrass?
The water depth on Hole 17 at Sawgrass is approximately 3-4. 5 feet deep–depending on which tee box you are playing from. The deepest water comes into play when playing from the championship tees at 4.
No more than two (2) golf carts are permitted in each foursome or tee time, unless approved in advance by the professional golf staff.
TPC is a high club golf that doesn't not have define a dress code but the people who go wear outfit sport or casual of major international brands.
TPC — which stands for Tournament Players Club — means that a golf course is part of a prestigious network of golf courses around the world.
Making a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th, encircled by water and subject to capricious wind, doesn't happen often at The Players Championship - on the average about once every five years - and it hasn't happened since Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain during the first round in 2002.
From September through May, pricing at the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass starts at $600 per person and includes the greens fee, the cart fee, a forecaddie for the group, and a bag of balls to warm up. From June through August, pricing starts at $450 per player.
18 holes -- and every one has water
16th sucking in 302. But before players come to the closing holes with their historical risk of water shots, there are a few more possible pratfalls. Theoretically, players can find the water on any of the 18 holes of Pete Dye's design.
The TPC Sawgrass course record in The Players Championship is 10-under 62, shot by Tom Hoge in the third round of the 2023 Players Championship, which featured the lowest third-round scoring average in tournament history.
A 9-over 12 is a demoralizing score to make on a par 3, but it has nothing on Angelo Spagnolo's 66. That's right, Spagnolo, who played TPC Sawgrass in 1986 for a Golf Digest contest to reveal America's Worst Avid Golfer, dunked 27 balls in the water at 17 and ended up with a 63-over 66.
Woods has hit a hole-in-one 20 times in the course of his lifetime, his first at the age of six. Three have come in PGA Tour competitions - at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open, 1997 Phoenix Open, and 1998 Sprint International. Woods is the only professional golfer to win four majors in a row.
Has anyone aced a par 4?
Andrew Magee created history with his ace
The 4-time PGA Tour event winner is the only person to ever hit a hole-in-one on a par-4 in the history of the PGA Tour. In 2001, on the 25th of January Magee made the record-breaking shot at the Phoenix Open. Magee was a bit frustrated after hitting a bogey on the 15th hole.
1 handicapped hole means it is the most difficult. Yet the hole that is toughest for some players is not necessarily the toughest for all players.
What is my maximum hole score for handicap posting purposes? A. If you have an established Handicap Index®, the maximum score for each hole played is limited to a net double bogey, equal to double bogey plus any handicap strokes you are entitled to receive based on your Course Handicap™.
A 20 Handicap can record up to an 8 on Hole# 5 —Double Bogey plus 2 Handicap Strokes. 9 Hole Round vs 18 Hole Round — 7- 13 holes will be considered a Nine Hole Score and 14 holes or more will be considered an 18 Hole Score.
Although no one in PGA Tour history has ever recorded an ace on a par-5, there have actually been five records of par-5 holes-in-one. And no, none of them were from Happy Gilmore. The first “condor” occurred in 1962 off the club of Larry Bruce.
Bob Tway holds the unfortunate record of posting a 12 at TPC Sawgrass' iconic par-three 17th during the 2005 Players Championship - the highest ever score on the infamous hole.
Best Holes is the name of a golf tournament format (or a game for a group golf buddies to play) in which only a golfer's best scores from throughout the round are tallied to produce his or her tournament score.
Tom Hoge's new magic number: 62. On a Saturday afternoon of low scores at The Players Championship, Hoge went lowest of all and surpassed a host of major champions to carve out his own page in the record books at The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.
Usual prices to play TPC Sawgrass, one of the best golf courses in the US, usually start at $600 from September to May, and $450 during the summer, but with limited availability for March tee times and coming right on the back of the Players Championship, prices are higher.
How many hole in ones does Tiger Woods have?
Woods has hit a hole-in-one 20 times in the course of his lifetime, his first at the age of six. Three have come in PGA Tour competitions - at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open, 1997 Phoenix Open, and 1998 Sprint International. Woods is the only professional golfer to win four majors in a row.
Crowds of more than 200,000 turn up each day to watch the most bonkers week on the PGA Tour - but only 20,000 seats interest them. They surround the iconic 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, a 163-yard par three, otherwise known as the loudest place in golf.
The longest recorded straight drive hole-in-one is believed to be 517 yards or 473 metres, on the par-5 No. 9 hole at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver in 2002, aided by the thin air due to the high altitude.
Everyone's favorite time of year is here: The Masters! Truth be told, it's the only tournament I watch every single shot possible. It's such great theater and it's the mecca for golfers all over the world.
Final Thoughts on TPC Sawgrass
It's one of the best target golf courses in the world, and to play a tour-level, championship course that isn't all about length was nice to see. The rate when we played was $413. I don't care who you are, that is a lot of money for a round of golf. In 2022?
It is home to the PGA Tour headquarters and hosts The Players Championship, one of the PGA Tour's signature events, now held in March.