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have been very privileged to have been able to play some amazing golf courses, both in South Africa and around the world. While I haven’t exactly traversed the US – Florida, South Carolina and Georgia have been the sum-total of my golfing states – I have played a few incredibly good and fairly well-known courses. None though, come close to the TPC at Sawgrass, home to the headquarters of the PGA Tour, The Players Championship and, of course, arguably the most notorious island-green hole in all of golf. When the chance came, almost exactly a year ago, to play the famed course, I jumped at it as several of my friends and journalistic colleagues – this publication’s editor-in-chief included – had regaled me with tales of their heroics on the 17th and I was just a little jealous. TPC at Sawgrass is an impressive facility; designed by the legendary Pete Dye, it was to be the first of the PGA Tour’s “stadium courses”, designed with spectators in mind,
Ah, the pressure! Just one chance to be able to say: “I hit the green on the 17th at Sawgrass!” affording them the very best views at all parts of the course. Cheap it is not and a round there will set you back close to R2000 and you’re expected to take a forecaddie which will probably end up costing you at least another R500. But this is also not a place where you worry about exchange rates and Rands and cents – this is all about the experience. And it is worth every cent! I have to admit that, despite watching many Players Championships over the years, most of my knowledge of the front nine came from watching my sons rip the course apart on Tiger Woods 2012, So, while most of the holes looked
eerily familiar, I was put off by the fact that there were no animated crowds cheering my every move. Playing a course that is best known for just one hole means that, for much of the round, there is a very real sense of anticipation for what is to come. But the holes preceding the 17th are magnificent and it is not difficult to understand why this course ranks regularly among the US’s top 50 and among the top three in Florida. As the back nine unwound in front of me, I found that my game was steadily improving and I decided that playing 16, 17 and 18 in level par should be my goal. As we were playing the course in late March, there was