It’s in the unique category of golf conversations, where one only needs to mutter “Island Green,” and the person or persons will immediately understand where they’re headed—No. 17 at TPC Sawgrass.
Few holes in golf are as famous, a mistake (it wasn’t originally to be an island green) that exemplifies a sport that thrives on them. Playing between 125 to 140 yards, the 78 feet of green and the water that surrounds it has long been a nerve-wracking battle of short-yardage control, where golfers have to battle themselves along with the winds and Lady Luck.
The par-3 17th has become a must-see moment during the Players Championship, too. Since 2003’s tourney, 757 balls have landed in the water at the 17th, 49 of them in 2019—including a donation by Tiger Woods:
Golf is hard.
Tiger Woods puts two in the water on No. 17. 💦 pic.twitter.com/xEqCMx04Z0
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 15, 2019
Woods carded a quadruple-bogey (7) that day, the same as Sergio Garcia’s 2013 meltdown that helped end his title chances. Neither makes the worst of the worst, though.
Currently, the 10 highest scores on No. 17 belong to these guys:
Ronnie Black, 1984: 8
The first round of the 1984 Players Championship at the Stadium Course has been labeled the “Meanest Day at 17.” With 40-mph wind gusts, guys were playing anything from a 5-iron to a wedge. That day, the hole played 122 over par (a 3.8-plus average). Ronnie Black stepped away from a logjam of six golfers who recorded a seven, one-upping the pack with a dreaded ‘snowman.’