The TPC at Sawgrass – One of Florida’s Best Courses

Any of us who have watched a lot of golf on television (or who have experience playing the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series video games) are certainly familiar with the Island Green on TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course. But there is so much more to this Jacksonville suburban golf course than three seventeen. Opened in 1980, the course was not originally popular with professional golfers, but tweaks by designer Pete Dye shortly after made the course much more playable.

The course is still considered one of the most difficult in the world. It was the first of several tournament players’ clubs (TPCs) built at that time. The TPC is a chain of public and private golf courses operated by the PGA Tour with the aim that these courses host tourist events. In this way, the PGA Tour can avoid sharing event proceeds with outside course owners.

But the first was TPC on the Sawgrass Stadium field. The Players Championship is now played there annually, and due to its prestige and the biggest prize of any golf tournament, some consider it the “fifth biggest.” The best thing about this course, as well as the other TPC courses across the country, is that the regular golfer can play them.

When we think of the Stadium Course at Sawgrass, the thing that will probably spring to mind right away is the Island Green. It’s technically a peninsula, but there’s not much to shoot except a 78-foot-wide green maybe half as deep. Starting at about 132 yards for the pros, it’s a decent-sized target, but it’s one of the most talked about holes on the PGA tour. Add in a bit of wind which can be unpredictable at times with virtually no rescue area, and you have the attention of all golfers. In 2007, a record fifty balls landed in the water at this hole in one round. And fans are loving it, as NBC puts eleven cameras on him during the tournament.

Perhaps the most famous and bizarre incident in hole history occurred at the 1998 Players’ Championship. Golfer Steve Lowery successfully hit his ball on the green. A seagull swooped down, and after a few tries, it finally picked up a ball in its beak, carried it over the water, and dropped it. If you’re curious how this is dictated, under Rule 18-1 of the Rules of Golf, a bird is considered an “outside agency”, and considering that Lawry’s shot was from off the green, he was allowed to place the ball in the place where the bird ordered it.