Philip Reidon Sawgrass' par three 17th that creates more terror in the hearts of players and has left an infamous legacy to golfing history
WHAT IS it with the 17th hole at Sawgrass, a par three of just 137 yards, that it creates more terror in a player's heart than reading a Stephen King novel? Certainly, for a hole designed by accident rather than design, it has left an infamous legacy to golfing history . . . and inspired impostors all over the globe, as other course designers have attempted to recreate its devilish appeal.
In truth, despite the plethora of impostors, it is one of a kind. As Mark Calcavecchia put it: "It's like you have a three o'clock appointment for root canal. You're thinking about it all morning and you feel bad all day. But you know, sooner or later, you'll get to it."
In last year's first round, when a swirling wind caused players to second-guess themselves on club selection, many players wished that Pete Dye's original design - which didn't involve an island green, a blueprint that was only changed after a rich sand bank was discovered in this part of what was marshy terrain and the developers removed it to lay on the fairways and were left with a huge crater - had stayed as intended.
The green - which features just one bunker, the smallest of the 98 sand traps on the course - is built into the water with access to the green by a narrow pathway. A total of 1,200 planks of wood surround the green.
On the Thursday a year ago, no fewer than 50 balls - a record high - found watery graves in the pond with Ben Curtis, Davis Love III, Kent Jones and Trevor Immelman each putting two shots into the water as winds gusted in excess of 35 miles per hour.
Still, nobody exceeded the record set on the 17th by Bob Tway in the third round in the 2005 championship.
Tway took five attempts to find the putting surface - which measures 78 feet from back to front - and eventually signed for a 12, eclipsing the previous high of 11 set by Robert Gamez in 1990.
"It's one of the most difficult holes in golf because there is no cap on how high you can go.
"This is one of the few holes anywhere that has no margin of error, no area for recovery. It's an all-or-nothing type of shot," observed Phil Mickelson.
If professionals find it tough, what of the poor amateur? There are 40,000 green fees at the TPC Sawgrass each year, and it is estimated that no fewer than 120,000 balls find their way into the pond at the 17th.
That equates to an average of three balls per player! Divers retrieve the balls four times a year, with dives organised for January, April, July and October.
The highest score ever recorded on the hole was a 66! In 1985, Golf Digest magazine sponsored a World's Worst Golfer contest.
Angelo Spagnolo, a 31-year-old grocery store manager from Fayette City, Pennsylvania, hit 27 balls into the water from the tee box and drop area.
Rules officials finally directed him to putt around the hazard and down the narrow path that leads to the green.
Former PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman dubbed the path "Angelo's Alley". Spagnolo ultimately shot a 257 to "win" the title.
Not everyone, however, finds it tough. In fact, there have been 138 holes-in-one on the hole over the years, the first recorded by a certain Larry Denton Jnr in 1980.
Each of the aces is commemorated on a plaque outside the Mediterranean style clubhouse.
