The Players Championship this week has been a marathon, as weather has wreaked havoc on Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, causing stops and starts due to torrential rain and, even once the moisture passed, players were left to deal with brutal wind conditions on Saturday as The Players morphed into an Open Championship for a day.
While the conditions made it miserable to play in, with steady winds of 15-25 miles per hours and gusts well over 40, it created spectacular theater on Saturday, as fans were glued to their TVs watching the world’s best players get absolutely rocked by the combination of insane wind and all the water that lurks, waiting to drown a bad shot at any time at TPC Sawgrass. Two holes in particular stood out, with the long par 4 18th playing dead into the wind, with water all down the left side of the fairway, and the iconic 17th, a 136-yard par 3 on an island green, with wind blowing dead into the players faces.
Players were hitting 7- and 8-irons into 17 on Saturday, sometimes clubbing up as much as 50 yards to account for the wind, and those that could flight their ball low fared pretty well. Those that hoisted their shots up into the air or couldn’t commit fully to a swing saw their ball get killed by the wind and fall to a watery grave, 19 in all, creating an incredible 5-minute long compilation video of delicious golf failure.
136-yard par 3.
36 of 60 players hit No. 17 green in Round 2.
19 found the water
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 13, 2022
Most years, the 17th at Sawgrass feels a bit over-shown, as the large green tends to be pretty easy for players to hit in normal conditions. However, on Saturday it produced some of the greatest theater in sports, as players were absolutely rattled by the wind and found that normally spacious green had become a coin-flip to hit. The best reaction came from Brooks Koepka, who on his second visit to 17 on the day could only laugh as his ball went way too high and got gobbled up by a huge gust, falling miles short of dry land.
It was the ideal day to be watching golf on TV and not be out on the course yourself, which was unfortunate for the players who found themselves in the late tee time window and had to be the ones whose misery provided so much entertainment.
Source: https://uproxx.com/sports/players-championship-tpc-sawgrass-17-water-balls-video-compilation/