The Players Championship- Holes to Watch

This week the PGA Tour makes a stop at TPC Sawgrass for the unofficial fifth major, The Players Championship. This is a Pete Dye Course, and regarded as a modern masterpiece. The star of the show is #17, one of the most infamous Par 3's in golf. It features an island green and plays at a yardage where when the wind blows a good breeze can send the necessary wedge shots well off course to meet their fate in a watery grave. This isn't the only tough hole at Sawgrass, but it acts as more of a crescendo for a course that built its identity on being visually intimidating and requiring players to create the right shots. Let's not give all the love to #17 though, here are some other holes to watch this weekend at The Players Championship.

#1 — Off the rip, TPC Sawgrass shows a player its teeth. This tee shot has danger right in the form of a bunker as well as a water hazard, if you can carry those there is rough to make a player's 2nd shot tough. If you miss the fairway to the left, there is a gang of pine trees to catch your ball. Teeing off with less than driver would be the prudent play since the overall length here is 423 yards.

#5 — A really tough par 4, playing around 475 yards with a fairway that snakes. To find the fairway here, a player has to be precise. At driving distance, there is a series of bunkers on the right and a water hazard to the left. Playing it safe and escaping with a par is definitely a win here.

#8 — Playing at a tough 235 yards, this Par 3 is surrounded by eleven bunkers of various depths and sizes, the front of the green slopes down severely to punish short shots and encouraging them to roll down into a gathering area. The green itself has interesting contours, with raised areas on the left side and back center. Hitting it into the heart of the green and putting your ass off is the only way to score here.

#14 — This hole looks like it has it's own beach, a sandy waste area runs along the entire length of the left side of the fairway. There is a generous amount of space for a player to lay up, but doing so creates a second shot where any sort of slight mistake in trajectory or distance will be punished as the rough around the green is thick and the green's severe slope makes controlling distance on chips difficult.

I highlighted some of my favorite holes for this week, but even if architecture isn't your thing, this weeks tournament features a star studded field of players battling for the largest payout in PGA Tour history. This week's winner walks away with 4.5 million reasons to love golf, while whoever has the honor of finishing DFL (dead fucking last), pockets a little under 54K, not bad for a week of work!