TPC Sawgrass, the venue for this week’s Players Championship, is also the headquarters of the PGA Tour and, like much of Florida, it was once a vast expanse of flooded wetlands. The contrast between that property bought for $1 in the 1970s and what sits there today, however, could not be more profound.
The then-PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman had a vision as he stood looking out over that unpromising swamp: he wanted a permanent home for the tournament, and a test that would be transformative for the game. Named ‘The Stadium Course’, the designer Pete Dye was asked to create a layout that would be a withering examination of the players, that would generate thrilling Sunday drama, and one that would offer unprecedented visibility for the fans.
There are many who remain sniffy about these principles. Course traditionalists consider the test something of an artificial confection – a golfing version of a giddy ride at one of Florida’s theme parks. Many players, too, are a little ambivalent about the test. Tiger Woods, a man who twitches his nose a lot due to hay fever, was metaphorically sniffy when grumbling that “everyone hits to the same spots”. He felt hemmed in by the design, limited with his options, unable to dominate where elsewhere he might.
Beyond the course is that imposing HQ and it was designed by Sir Norman Foster who is another architect fond of rubbing folk up the wrong way. His supporters praise his sophistication and innovation, critics tend to mutter words like “flashy”. He’s responsible for the Gherkin in London and, like it, the Sawgrass creation looks like something other than its purpose (in this case: an airport terminal with no runway or planes).
Within its walls Jay Monahan, the current commissioner, plots changes to the PGA Tour and the ongoing dispute with LIV Golf, a civil war within the sport that threatens its future. Funny, then, that Ponte Vedra was the scene of the largest land invasion of America during World War 2.
It was on the beaches beyond the Sawgrass swamps that Nazi saboteurs – all of them US citizens who had been living in Germany when the war began – prepared to land in June 1942. Named Operation Pastorius, it was intended to hurt the US war effort via acts of terrorism aimed at industry, transport and the morale of the American people. U-boats dropped four agents in New York and another four at Ponte Vedra. That they achieved nothing was down to the decision of one of them to turn himself over to the FBI the minute he set foot in Florida.
Golf’s many tangled problems, alas, are unlikely to be quite so straightforwardly solved. Indeed, trying to stay up-to-date with the various machinations is like attempting to crack German naval code with your fingers rather than the Enigma machine. Last week Rory McIlroy said, “I don’t think (unity) has ever felt that close but it doesn’t feel like it’s any closer”, all this despite recent talks between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf in the White House and the President trumpeting his diplomatic skills.
Meanwhile, there’s a tournament to delve into that isn’t the fifth major championship. The Players is good, but it isn’t a title that defines a career, no matter the Sawgrass rhetoric. Nonetheless, here’s hoping for plenty of Dye-abolical drama on Sunday.
Sepp Straka
The Austrian became a three-time PGA Tour winner earlier this year at The American Express and two of the four rounds were played on another Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West. Nor is it the first time Straka has thrived on Dye creations. He’d been fourth there in the past, has been third and fifth at Harbour Town, and tenth at River Highlands (he also carded a 61 there last year). More pertinently, he has been T16 and ninth at Sawgrass itself.
Before the win in January, he ticked off a pair of top 30s in Hawaii and since then he’s finished top 15 in four of his five appearances including fifth last week at Bay Hill despite a first round 77. He’s already a winner in Florida – at PGA National – and another good week is well within him as he seeks to secure a second start in the Ryder Cup this September.
Wyndham Clark
Last week’s preview endured frustration with Shane Lowry and Wyndham Clark the pace-setters at halfway before spending Moving Day going backwards. But we’ll stick with the American and hope that his recent good starts can materialise into something substantial. He was the two-shot first round leader in Scottsdale, two shots off the 18-hole pace at Torrey Pines and then one blow clear last Thursday evening. So he’s close to his best and he also likes a Dye design. He was second at Sawgrass last year before finishing third at Harbour Town and ninth at River Highlands (with a final round 64).
Brian Harman
At first glance, Brian Harman’s form isn’t great, but he’s been playing – partly because of new PGA Tour rules – on courses that don’t suit him. He was T25 at Scottsdale which is his third-best effort there in 12 visits. He was then was then T17 at Torrey Pines, his second-best return from nine starts in San Diego. He followed that with T32 at PGA National which he’s only better twice in 10 previous appearances. And T40 at Bay Hill last week was his fifth-best finishing position in 11 events. This week is much more his type of thing, as demonstrated by third place in 2021 and second last year (he’s also twice been eighth and has a raft of top 10 finishes across all Dye designs).
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