Getty The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, home of The Players Championship.
The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass is easily one of the most iconic holes in golf. Though the hole isn’t long — it measures 137 yards on the scorecard – it can play anywhere from roughly 120 to 150 yards, and it’s long given the best players in the world fits during The Players Championship.
Look no further than Tiger Woods, who hit two balls in the water en route to a quadruple-bogey 7 during the second round of the 2019 Players, for proof.
Golf is hard.
Tiger Woods puts two in the water on No. 17. 💦
CNN called the 17th ‘the scariest shot in sports’ in a story on March 14, 2024, noting the countless pros whose balls have wound up in the “watery grave” that surrounds what is famously known as the “island green.”
“Between 2003 and 2022, an average of 48.68 balls per tournament have found the lake. An eye-watering 50 balls went into the water during a wind-swept first round in 2007, contributing to a tournament-record high of 93 – dwarfing the low-record of 28 from 2014,” Jack Bantock wrote.
But every now and then, the famed “island green” yields a rare hole-in-one. Since the PGA Tour‘s flagship event began being contested on Pete and Alice Dye’s gem in 1982, a total of 14 golfers competing in The Players Championship have made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole.
Of those 14, eight have come since 2016. And of those eight, five have come since 2022, the latest made by Ryan Fox on March 14, in the first round of the 2024 event.
Every Hole-in-One on the 17th Hole at TPC Sawgrass During The Players Championship
The 17th’s first hole-in-one was recorded by Brad Fabel in the first round of the 1986 event. The history-making ace ultimately didn’t help him, however, as he missed the cut.
Fox’s ace on March 14 also proved to be a history-making shot. He became the first golfer in The Players Championship to record back-to-back eagles after carding a 3 on the par-5 16th hole.
Here’s the full list of aces on the island green.
| Hole-in-One 17th Hole at TPC Sawgrass During The Players Championship | ||
|---|---|---|
| Player | Year | Round |
| Brad Fabel | 1986 | 1 |
| Brian Claar | 1991 | 3 |
| Fred Couples | 1997 | 4 |
| Joey Sindelar | 1999 | 1 |
| Paul Azinger | 2000 | 3 |
| Miguel Angel Jimenez | 2002 | 1 |
| Will Wilcox | 2016 | 2 |
| Sergio Garcia | 2017 | 1 |
| Ryan Moore | 2019 | 1 |
| Shane Lowry | 2022 | 3 |
| Hayden Buckley | 2023 | 1 |
| Aaron Rai | 2023 | 3 |
| Alex Smalley | 2023 | 4 |
| Ryan Fox | 2024 | 1 |
Fred Couples Made an Epic ‘Hole-in-Three’ on the 17th in 1999
Fred Couples made a hole-in-one on the 17th during the final round of the 1997 edition of The Players Championship, ultimately tying for 10th.
Two years later, the 1992 Masters champ provided another epic moment on the island green with one of the most unlikely pars one will ever see.
In the opening round of the 1999 Players, Couples found the water with his tee shot on the 17th, hitting his ball a few yards short of the putting surface. But instead of heading to the drop zone, which many players do, he instead opted to take his ensuing shot from the tee box.
And what happened next is still one of the most replayed shots in Players Championship history. Taking the same calm swing he always did, Couples dunked what was ultimately his third shot after taking his penalty right into the cup for arguably the most legendary par in PGA Tour history.