Tag: Pete Dye

Teeth of the Dog at Casa de Campo in Dominican Republic to be restored by Jerry Pate Design

Jerry Pate Design will upgrade the playing surfaces and bunkers at a massive Dominican Republic resort.

Casa de Campo, the sprawling destination in the Dominican Republic with three resort golf courses, has announced plans to restore its Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog layout starting in January of 2025.

Teeth of the Dog – named for the small, sharp rocks along the shore – is widely considered one of the best courses in the Caribbean. Opened in 1971, the layout features seven dramatic holes that play tight enough to the ocean to get a player’s socks wet. The course not only was built by the legendary Dye, he lived there with his wife, Alice, for years, and some of his ashes were spread on No. 8 of Teeth of the Dog after he died in 2020.

The restoration will be done by Jerry Pate Design, the company owned by the winner of the 1976 U.S. Open and the 1982 Players Championship. After that latter victory, Pate threw Dye into the water on the new Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass that Dye had recently designed.

The Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog course at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic (Courtesy of Casa de Campo/Matthew Majka)

Much of the work to be done at Teeth of the Dog is cosmetic. All tees, fairways and greens will be re-grassed with Dynasty Paspalum, which is ideal for seaside courses, especially one like Teeth of the Dog where ocean spray easily can blow onto the golf holes. The fairways will be sand-capped three inches deep, which promotes firm and bouncy turf ideal for golf.

Pate’s team also will expand the current greens back to their original sizes, with some slight recontouring. All greenside bunkers will be reshaped and expanded to flat bottoms with enhanced faces for a sharper, more dramatic look. Other work includes renovating the cart paths.

Work is expected to be completed by November 2025.

“I have long admired Pete Dye, as he was a creative genius who transformed the modern game of golf with his immense talent and imagination, and no course typifies that more than Teeth of the Dog,” Pate said in a media release announcing the restoration. “The layout is truly one of the best in the world, and our job is to preserve Pete’s lifeworks and put a bit more bite back into Teeth of the Dog.”

Casa de Campo
Casa de Campo’s Teeth of the Dog in the Dominican Republic (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)

The resort’s other two Dye-designed courses will remain open to guests. The 27-hole Dye Fore course features many holes along incredible jungle cliffs above a river with long views down toward the ocean, while the 18-hole Links course plays through the center of the 7,000-acre property with wider fairways and tricky greens.

The resort as a whole is massive with a world-class marina, a smorgasbord of dining options, a wide assortment of activities ranging from shooting sports to the beach and one of the best beach bars in the world. The property includes an assortment of accommodations ranging from hotel rooms to luxury villas frequently rented by top celebrities.

The updates to Teeth of the Dog will be the first large-scale work to the course since it opened.

“We will miss Teeth of the Dog for most of 2025, but we are excited and honored to take Pete’s masterpiece to a new level and completely restore the integrity of his legendary course to new heights,“ Gilles Gagon, longtime friend of Dye and the golf director emeritus and senior director of golf sales at the resort, said in the media release. “With all the many years Pete and I worked together, I know he would be beyond pleased with the upcoming work to be done on the course that ignited his stellar career and legacy as one of the world’s premier golf architects.”

2031 PGA Championship headed to Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, site of Phil Mickelson’s win in 2021, will host a third men’s major.

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, will be the host of another major.

The venue, site of then-50-year-old Phil Mickelson’s PGA Championship triumph in 2021 to become the oldest player to win a men’s major, will again host the PGA Championship in 2031.

The PGA of America also announced Wednesday that the 2029 Girls and Boys Junior PGA Championships will be at the Ocean Course.

The 113th PGA Championship is scheduled for May 2031. It will be the third time the Wanamaker Trophy is up for grabs along South Carolina’s coast. The Ocean Course previously hosted the 2012 (won by Rory McIlroy) and 2021 PGA Championships. It’s the ninth course to host three or more PGA Championships.

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP: Future sites through 2034

Other significant events at the Ocean Course include the 1991 Ryder Cup won by the American side, the 2005 PGA Professional Championship (Mike Small) and the 2007 Senior PGA Championship (Denis Watson).

Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course in South Carolina (Courtesy Kiawah Island Golf Resort)

The Ocean Course rankings

“We are ecstatic to bring the Junior PGA Championships and PGA Championship to the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in 2029 and 2031,” said PGA of America President John Lindert, who is PGA director of golf at the Country Club of Lansing in Michigan. “Past PGA Championships at Kiawah Island have provided no shortage of memorable moments and historic performances, all taking place along a breathtaking coastal setting. The Ocean Course’s challenging layout and rich history make it an ideal destination for our championships.”

The Ocean Course was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1991, shortly before the Ryder Cup. At the suggestion of his wife, Alice, he engineered fairways and greens closer to the tops of the dunes alongside the Atlantic Ocean instead of on lower grades, as is common on many traditional links layouts. This increases exposure to frequent winds while providing incredible views from just about any vantage.

Check the yardage book: PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course for the PGA Tour’s 2024 American Express

StrackaLine offers a hole-by-hole guide for the Pete Dye Stadium Course for the American Express.

PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course – one of three courses used for the PGA Tour’s 2024 The American Express in La Quinta, California – opened in 1986 with a design by the legendary architect whose name appears in the layout’s title.

The 7,187-yard, par-72 Stadium Course is the main track for this week’s event, hosting each player for one of the first three rounds as well as Sunday’s final round. The other two courses used in the first three rounds are La Quinta Country Club (7,060 yards, par 72) and PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course (7,147 yards, par 72). All the players have one round on each course before the cut is made for Sunday’s final round.

The Stadium Course ranks No. 11 in California on Golfweek’s Best list of top public-access courses, and the Nicklaus Tournament Course ties for No. 21 in the state on that list.

Worth noting, La Quinta Country Club has undergone a two-year renovation in which all the greens have been replaced. Also, the Pete Dye Stadium course will wrap up a multi-year restoration later in 2024.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week on the Stadium Course. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Daniel Berger, who hasn’t played since 2022, will play in 2024 American Express

Berger hasn’t played since the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club.

According to a report from Golf Channel, Daniel Berger, who hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, due to a back injury has entered the field for the American Express, Jan. 18-21, in La Quinta, California.

The PGA Tour later confirmed the move.

Berger now ranks 634th in the Official World Golf Ranking and will be playing of a major medical extension.

The 30-year-old has four wins on Tour with the latest coming at the 2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He’s also represented the United States at two team events, the 2017 Presidents Cup and the 2021 Ryder Cup.

Berger has recently been posting videos practicing again on social media.

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Photos: Whistling Straits is 25 years old

Pete Dye and Herb Kohler Jr. wanted to challenge the best players in the game.

Whistling Straits became so embedded in golf’s championship schedule so quickly, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that Pete Dye’s creation on the shores of Lake Michigan is only 25 years old. On Thursday, the Straits Course celebrates its silver anniversary of July 6.

Since its opening in July 1998, the Straits has hosted three PGA Championships (2004 won by Vijay Singh, 2010 won by Martin Kaymer and 2015 won by Jason Day). The Straits joins Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pinehurst No. 2, Bethpage Black and Southern Hills as the only layouts to have hosted three men’s major championships in that span.

Throw in the 2007 U.S. Senior Open (Brad Bryant) and the 2021 Ryder Cup (U.S. won 19-9 over Europe), and Whistling Straits has quickly established itself as a major player.

That was the idea from the beginning.

Herb Kohler Jr. – the longtime executive chairman of Kohler Co., the plumbling fixtures powerhouse based near Sheboygan, Wisconsin – branched into golf with the creation of Blackwolf Run in 1988. That resort club eventually became home to two 18-hole courses (River and Meadow Valleys) as well as the newer Baths of Blackwolf Run par-3 course. In addition to the American Club Resort Hotel, Blackwolf Run formed the initial backbone of what has become Destination Kohler. Blackwolf Run hosted the first big event for the resort, the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open (Se Ri Pak won), and the composite course there again hosted the Women’s Open in 2012 (Na Yeon Choi won).

But Kohler had no intent of stopping there. He wanted more major championships, including for the men.

“That was our ambition right from the outset,” Kohler told Golfweek in a 2019 interview. “We wanted tournaments, and we didn’t want the weekly tournaments, so the only possible thing was majors.”

As he had with the creation of Blackwolf Run, Kohler turned to architect Pete Dye. It was Dye’s sometimes quirkiness that initially drew Kohler’s attention.

“This one particular chap, he was an odd duck, but he had two courses in particular that were of interest,” Kohler said. “One that had just been open to the public, it was the TPC at Sawgrass, the home course for the PGA Tour. And at least 20 different pros who had a chance to play it were extraordinarily upset, and they were making their feelings known to the local press. … It sort of fascinated me. What I liked about it was, he had this desire to get into the psyche of a pro and really befuddle him.

“This fellow, Pete Dye, took them right to the edge of embarrassment, and they didn’t like being embarrassed, but I enjoyed it. … So here was this single person, a little strange as he might be – he always wore khaki pants and always wore tennis shoes – but here was this single person who could befuddle the pros but was considerate to the amateurs when he had to be. And I liked that combination.”

Vijay Singh hits out of a bunker on the 15th hole en route to winning the 2004 PGA Championship at the Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

That determination to challenge the pros on every shot was the impetus for creating the Straits Course. Kohler found 560 suitable acres on the shore of Lake Michigan, but the land was relatively flat, perched on a tabletop above the lake – the site included an abandoned military airfield. Dye, who passed away in 2020 at age 94, went to work converting the site into a rocking and rolling golf course reminiscent of something found in wild Irish dunes, moving 13,000 truckloads of sand in the process of creating 70 feet of elevation change. It became home to the Straits Course and the adjacent Irish Course.

“Pete and I had this general agreement that the Straits course would be something like Ballybunion (in Ireland), but that was the closest we got to any specifics in design. It was all Pete thereafter, and he did a wonderful, wonderful job,” Kohler, who passed away in 2022 at age 83, said of the course that features eight holes on the edge of the massive lake. “It was the sand that gave it the character and gave the fairways some speed.”

The Straits has been challenging the best players in the game ever since. And even in the absence of its two masterminds – Kohler and Dye – the resort will continue to challenge and thrill its guests for years to come. The Straits ranks No. 9 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses in the U.S., and it’s the highest-ranked public-access course in Wisconsin.

Check out several photos of the 1998 grand opening of the Straits below, along with more shots of the course today. And for even more on Whistling Straits, check these hole-by-hole flyover videos of the course shot before the 2021 Ryder Cup.

Check the yardage book: TPC Louisiana for the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for TPC Louisiana, which was designed by Pete Dye.

TPC Louisiana – site of the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans on the PGA Tour – was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 2004 in Avondale. It was built with consultation from PGA Tour players Steve Elkington and Kelly Gibson.

The course ranks No. 2 in Louisiana on Golfweek’s Best ranking of top public-access layouts in each state. It underwent a $2 million enhancement project in 2019 intended in large part to provide better playing conditions. It will play to 7,425 yards with a par of 72 for the Zurich Classic.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week in Louisiana.

Check the yardage book: Harbour Town Golf Links for the 2023 RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for one of the most recognizable courses on the PGA Tour.

Harbour Town Golf Links – site of the 2023 RBC Heritage on the PGA Tour – was designed by Pete Dye with an assist from Jack Nicklaus and opened in 1969 on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Part of Sea Pines Resort, Harbour Town ranks No. 2 in South Carolina on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in each state. It also ranks No. 21 among all resort courses in the U.S., and it comes in at No. 54 on Golfweek’s Best list of all modern courses in the U.S.

Harbour Town will play to 7,191 yards with a par of 71 for the RBC Heritage. With tree branches frequently dangling into playing corridors, the layout tends to favor control over brute strength as players must navigate sometimes tight fairway lines on the interior holes before the course moves to Calibogue Sound for the final two holes. The par 3s are considered by many to be among the best sets of 1-shotters in the game.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week.

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Pete Dye originally sketched out just 17 holes for Austin Country Club, but his incredible quick fix is now deciding matches at the WGC-Dell Match Play

Looking for the perfect late-round match-play backdrop? How’s this sound?

AUSTIN, Texas — Looking for the perfect late-round match-play backdrop?

How’s this sound?

A short par 3 with a tee box perched on the side of a cliff. Unpredictable winds swirling from beneath, forcing players to use their best guess at a number, and a healthy dose of Scottish-style pot bunkers surrounding the green on the safe side, meaning those who get in but don’t get out smoothly can easily chalk up a wildly inflated score.

Welcome to the 17th hole at Austin Country Club, host of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for at least two more days. This 150-yard shortie looks palatable from the tee but has often been the deciding factor in matches during the seven years the event has been staged in the state’s capital.

This is where Billy Horschel closed out Scottie Scheffler for the title in 2021, and a host of superstars – Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia and more – have found themselves in dire straits on this short, seductive hole, as seen in the photos below.

But here’s the little-known fact that often goes untold:

No. 17 wasn’t even part of the original plans.

When the club’s membership looked to make a second move to a new property, this time to a hilly piece of land along Lake Austin, legendary architect Pete Dye was brought in to design the masterpiece on display today.

Austin Country Club
The StrackaLine yardage book for Austin Country Club in Texas, site of the PGA Tour’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (Courtesy of StrackaLine)

Dye originally sketched out the routing on a napkin, putting together much of the track as it currently exists. He proudly passed the drawings along and was a little miffed when someone noted that he had not routed enough holes in the plan.

Legendary University of Texas golfer and World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite picked up the story here during Friday’s third round of play.

“Pete had the thing on a napkin, he just drew the thing out,” Kite told Golfweek while standing on the practice putting green at ACC. “I think it was probably (architect) Roy Bechtol who looked at him and said, ‘Hey Pete, there’s only 17 holes here.’ Pete looked at him and said, ‘I can find a par 3 anywhere.’ ”

And that’s how the 17th hole, which plays as No. 8 in the normal, non-tournament routing, was born.

More: Pete Dye’s top 10 courses according to Golfweek’s Best rankings

Of course, it also explains why the hole hangs precariously on a hill, a characteristic that has given many players fits. The hole was shoehorned in after the initial concept was hatched, needing to be short so players wouldn’t have to backtrack too far to the next tee box.

Kite, who has played the famed course more times than he can count, said the breezes can make the hole tricky for players who aren’t accustomed to the area’s topography.

“The winds come up through the canyons, and you get back on those tees and you can’t always feel the wind,” Kite said. “And so it makes choosing the right club there very, very problematic. I mean, it’s really tough to pull the right club and get it close. And even for those of us that have played it numerous times, it’s always difficult, but we know the tendencies.”

Kite added that players needed time to adjust to the winds upon arriving in Austin in 2016 for the first playing of the Dell Match Play there – the first few years the hole wreaked real havoc on the world’s best.

“You see the guys that come in here and they obviously know a lot more now than they did the first couple of years that we played here,” Kite said. “And while it’s a tough, tough club to pull, if you do get it right the green is pretty demanding. It has a lot of undulation in it. It’s an interesting hole for sure.”

Dye, who died in 2020 at the age of 94, was particularly proud of the course, telling Austin American-Stateman columnist Kirk Bohls in 2016 that the partnership with designer Rod Whitman proved to be one of his favorite projects.

“I love that golf course,” he said. “It was a difficult job, but it worked out OK. It was really remarkable. I don’t think they changed it very much.”

Dale Morgan is the longtime head pro at ACC and someone who also figures largely into the club’s lore. Morgan is one of only three pros the club has ever had, the others being legendary teacher Harvey Penick and his son, Tinsley Penick.

And he also marvels at how Dye’s quick cover-up produced a masterpiece.

“When he realized there were only 17 holes, he said, ‘Well, there’s an area over here and I think we can make one,'” Morgan said. “He ended up making one of the best little par 3s in the world.”

Morgan said Dye had no idea when he first put the plan together that the club would end up with a World Golf Championships event for the better part of a decade, and he certainly didn’t know the little hole that was an afterthought could be a deciding stage for some of the world’s best golfers.

“He thinks he’s building a golf course for members and he has no idea we’ll be playing these championships out here,” Morgan said.

“I know he’s looking down and smiling on us right now.”

Here’s a look at some of the trouble No. 17 has offered up through the tournament’s run:

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Lynch: Three years after his death, Pete Dye is still twisting the thumbscrews at TPC Sawgrass

The first Players held here was in 1982 when J.C. Snead famously sniped that Dye had ruined a perfectly good swamp.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The aphorism about not speaking ill of the dead is believed to have originated with Chilon of Sparta, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. It’s a noble sentiment, admittedly, but then Chilon never had to play a Pete Dye golf course. It’s been three years since the celebrated architect died at age 94, but his name has surely been muttered in vain by quite a few competitors this week at TPC Sawgrass, where the Stadium Course ranks among the most taxing of his designs in a career that spanned half a century.

As many a USGA official can testify, elite professional golfers are often unable to distinguish between being tested and being humiliated. The higher the number on the scorecard, the greater the odds a player will hold a dim view of both golf course and architect. T’was always thus with the Stadium Course. The first Players Championship held here was in 1982 when J.C. Snead famously sniped that Dye had ruined a perfectly good swamp. (His verdict probably didn’t soften in eight subsequent appearances, during which he broke 70 only once and even carded an 85).

Dye earned the moniker of the ‘Marquis De Sod’ for what Tour players saw as his gleeful embrace of sadism.

Four decades after it opened, the Stadium Course is golf’s equivalent of a medieval rack, across which the world’s best players are stretched until their breaking point is identified. By Sunday evening, 143 competitors will have snapped as cleanly as the club Shane Lowry angrily pulverized in Thursday’s first round. Perhaps even all 144, since some years not even the winner emerges unscathed. Aaron Wise must have wanted to snap all 14 of his after rinsing three balls at the 18th hole on his way to a 10.

Friday brought more misery. Lucas Herbert followed his opening 82 with 85. Through 36 holes, his scorecard showed 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, leaving the Australian only an ace and a Wise shy of batting for the most improbable cycle in elite golf. And Herbert didn’t even have the worst day.

More: Pete Dye’s top 10 courses according to Golfweek’s Best rankings

Justin Lower eyes his shot from the rough on hole 5 during the first round of The Players golf tournament on Thursday, March 9, 2023, at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. (Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union)

Max McGreevy signed for 89 after a day in which he had more 7s than 3s. To borrow a quip from the late Peter Alliss, his card resembled the dialing code for Tierra del Fuego. It will be cold comfort to McGreevy that Herbert still clipped him by nine strokes for high finisher.

A course that shows no mercy also showed no favoritism, as players who arrived in form were sent packing early. While world No. 1 Jon Rahm was felled by a stomach bug, others had to sign for their woes. Like Chris Kirk, fresh off victory two weeks ago at the Honda Classic. And Kurt Kitayama, winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational five days ago. He will have the weekend off to celebrate his victory. The two men who finished tied second behind Kitayama — Rory McIlroy and Harris English — were also rendered roadkill.

The Stadium Course is one of only two PGA Tour venues (Pebble Beach being the other) where the course is not merely the stage upon which great actors work, but itself a character in the drama. Fans remember the triumphs and disasters, particularly on the closing holes, a challenge more terrifying than being caught short in a long line for the portalet on Saturday at the WM Phoenix Open. Like Hal Sutton’s right club on that day in 2000, or Tiger’s better than most putt. Looming as large are the misfortunes. Len Mattiace was one shot off the lead when he got to the 17th hole 25 years ago and made 8, a painful moment for a popular figure in the locker room. Ten years ago, Sergio Garcia came to the 17th tee tied for the lead with Woods and made a quadruple bogey, prompting peers in the locker room to wonder if Schadenfreude is capitalized.

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The Stadium Course at Sawgrass provides something seldom seen now in elite golf, at least outside of a U.S. Open: the turning of the thumbscrews. Most weeks on the PGA Tour we see a battery of birdies propel someone to victory. We likely will this week too — it’s inevitable in a stacked field that at least one guy will get hot. But for those of us who enjoy seeing the world’s top golfers get mugged — to experience the kind of frustration the rest of us endure with every outing — this is as good as it gets.

The greatest day in golf during 2022 was Saturday at Sawgrass, when high winds battered the course and the psyches of the best. The flip side is that brutality can be a buzz kill, claiming the very stars upon whom an event relies for eyeballs. That’s not ideal for a Tour touting its designated events, which to be fair have produced stellar leaderboards in recent weeks. Just not this week.

Through two rounds, TPC Sawgrass remains the most entertaining venue on Tour — fair enough to generously reward those in full flight, capricious enough to harshly punish those who aren’t. So while some of those slamming trunks in the Sawgrass parking lot might be taking Pete Dye’s name in vain, the rest of us have reason enough to whisper it as a blessing.

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Why Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and other big names hate being reminded of their records at TPC Sawgrass

Pete Dye’s house of horrors can expose any weakness in a player’s game; it doesn’t discriminate.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Xander Schauffele finished tied for second in his debut at the Players Championship in 2018, but since that sterling performance he’s missed the cut three straight times. Just don’t remind him of this pesky little fact.

“You’re actually the second guy, someone outside reminded me how terrible my record is now since my tied second finish,” Schauffele said ahead of the Players Championship. “So I wasn’t aware that I was so bad here. You guys are crushing it. Reality check’s always nice. Usually, my wife gives me one. So we’ll just let it be in the media room today.”

Jokes aside, Schauffele has tried his hardest to bury the memory of last year’s Players Championship in the back recesses of his mind.

“Last year I would wash up as an X. Felt like we were at an Open Championship and I got the bad side of the wave,” he said.

When the wind blew its hardest from left to right at TPC Sawgrass, Schauffele dunked his tee shot short of the island green and his round spiraled out of control. Later, his caddie, Austin Kaiser, showed him a stat posted on social media that encapsulated how quickly everything had gone wrong.

“He showed me like I was the first ever to go from like the top 10 to outside the top 100 or something like that in like one hole,” said Schauffele, who shot 73-78 and had the weekend off. “Like I said, my team’s all about giving me reality checks and I got one.”

Schauffele, ranked No. 6 in the world, isn’t the only big-name player who has been sent home packing in recent years. Pete Dye’s house of horrors can expose any weakness in a player’s game; it doesn’t discriminate, even from the likes of major winners Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler.

Collin Morikawa hits his tee shot on the 17th hole during the first round of the 2021 Players Championship golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass – Stadium Course. Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

“To be honest, my game has only felt good coming into this tournament in 2020,” said Morikawa, citing the year the tournament was canceled after one round due to COVID-19. “Sometimes you come to events and you feel really comfortable; you’re comfortable with the setting or you’re comfortable with the golf course. I feel comfortable here, and what’s great about this golf course is that it does fit (my game). I hit a lot of mid-irons to short irons into greens and you have to drive it well, but it is what it is. So I’m not too worried about my previous history here.”

Spieth nearly won the Players as a rookie in 2014 playing in the final pairing and going his first 58 holes without a bogey before finishing in a tie for fourth after a final-round 74. But since then he’s been stuck on the struggle bus.

“I don’t have a great track record here at this event. It doesn’t take much research to figure that out. But I feel like when striking it well, having some momentum and feeling like a little bit of freedom as far as being able to play aggressively here, that’s going to kind of be my strategy this week to try and take advantage. I mean, be patient, but when you get a couple opportunities, make sure you go ahead and fire away,” Spieth said.

When a reporter began a question by reminding Spieth that he’s missed five cuts in his last seven appearances, he cut him off and said, “I said it didn’t take much research. I didn’t need you to actually research it.”

Then Spieth tried to explain why TPC Sawgrass has been a Rubik’s Cube he cannot solve. “I don’t play it with enough patience, and that kind of goes against what I just talked about being aggressive,” he said. “But there’s such a balance there to being confident and swinging aggressively to the right targets versus visually I’ve had a hard time on this golf course because I like to see a lot of feel shots, and out here there’s not a lot of stuff to work it off of. It seems like if a ball is moving away from a hole, it’s just going to move further away from a hole … that’s the only thing I can think of right now.”

Scheffler was another victim of the bad side of the draw last year and barely survived the cut, finishing T-55 after missing the cut in his debut in 2021.

“There’s not one guy that has an advantage around this place,” said Scheffler. “I was talking to a few guys earlier, and somebody said it was a thinking man’s golf course, and I said it’s actually kind of the opposite because you just have to hit really good shots if you want to play well. You can’t scrape it around this place. You just have to hit fairways and hit greens and go from there.

“If you’re not playing really good golf, you’re not going to score, and if you are playing well, you’re going to shoot low scores, and so as a player I think we really appreciate that … you see whatever guy is playing the best that week.”

And that’s why it is one of the most coveted titles in men’s professional golf. Should he win this week, Morikawa was asked which he would consider more of a badge of honor – the course that he had the best score on or the players he beat? 

“The title, that’s all that matters to me,” Morikawa said. “Just knowing you won the Players Championship. I think that you never lose that spot in history, right? Whether you beat 20 guys or whether you beat 144, I think you still have and own that title for that year. There’s no excuses after the fact. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts. It’s you got it done in whatever year and that’s yours.”

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