Jack Nicklaus won the The Players
Championship three times before
the move to TPC Sawgrass. He
was critical of the new home of
the tournament saying “You want
some controversy? They should
dynamite it.”
B course and be beaten with a stick
until he breaks 80.”) – TPC Sawgrass’
Stadium Course still has critics. But it
has earned a measure of respect from
almost everyone.
There have been far fewer renovations than at Augusta National or almost
any course that has hosted a U.S. Open.
It measured 6,857 yards the day it
opened. Today, it tips out at 7,215.
“You can play a golf course that is
7,100 yards long and make it as chal-
lenging as you want,” Strange said.
“Those of us who have been around
long enough, especially those of us in
that senior locker room, understand
that you don’t have to stretch a golf
course out to 7,600 yards to make it
challenging. Those who don’t un-
derstand that are the ones building
7,600-yard golf courses.”
Firmness, rough, wind, and pin
placements have kept scoring consis-
tent over the decades without adding
500-yard par 4s and 290-yard par 3s.
Jerry Pate shot 280 when he won in
1982; K.J. Choi fired a 275 in 2011.
“I could never, in my wildest
dreams, have imagined that it would
hold up the way it has,” Dye said.
“Especially 17. I’ve been watching
that hole for 30 years now and it never
ceases to amaze me how much trou-
ble the best players in the world con-
tinue to have with the thing. They’re
standing there 140, 145 yards out and
they can’t hit it. I mean, the green is
almost 6,000 square feet. If it wasn’t
for the circumstances, they could hit it
a hundred times at midnight, but the
swings change when they get there.”
Then he laughed and said, “It’s the
darndest thing.”
Those who have seen their tourna-
ment end at the most famous short par
3 in golf have used stronger language
than that. And they weren’t smiling
when they said it. l
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