PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Most of the talk about TPC Sawgrass is about the finishing holes (Nos. 16, 17 and 18) which admittedly are a great finish, but the par-5 ninth hole is one of the most underrated par-5s on the PGA Tour.
One of the things that makes it such a great hole at the Players Championship is the teeing options the tour uses. In the yardage book, No. 9 is listed at 583 yards, but they can make it much shorter. The beauty of shortening the hole to make it reachable means bringing lots of trouble into play.
Let's say they play it at its full 583-yard length and a player is going to lay up with his second shot. Look closely at the word between 95 and 65 on the hole map: blocked.
Laying up on the left side of the fairway puts the player in a bad position and you'll hear caddies say things like, "There's a whole lot of room right here." Or "put this at the tree there on the right and it'll kick perfect for us." Because even shots that start offline will get favorable bounces back to the fairway.
Going for the green is not a bad play unless you miss it in one of the three little pot bunkers or end up in the rough right. Two things happen there -- horrible stances and bogeys on the scorecard.
Check out the layup area. To play this par-5 the best, when you lay up, you should have a shot that is at least 95 yards to the front edge because that's where the flat lies end. Any closer and you risk being on a side slope -- no fun even with a wedge in your hand. Being outside 95 yards gives most players a full shot where they can control the spin, which is extremely important when it comes to a green that can get very "crusty" by late Sunday afternoon.
Looking at the green, the toughest hole location is back right. Last year, it was 21 paces on, 4 paces from the right edge. Yes, down in that little bowl!
Miss the green right, and if you're lucky, you can putt from the collection area. Even if you hit the green left of the hole, the putt is so fast downhill that the only way to stop the ball was if the hole got in the way. Precision on that hole location is key.
The other three locations: front right, middle left, and back left are all challenging, but getable from outside 10 feet. According to ShotLink statistics, last year there was a grand total of one eagle on this hole all week. Now you know why.
Yardage books provided by Mark Long -- TourSherpa@gmail.com. Copyright 2016 Tour Sherpa, Inc. All rights reserved.