TPC Sawgrass, Stadium Course - Home of "The Players

In north-east Florida, near Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach is home to one of the most famous golf courses in the world: the Pete Dye-designed Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, which hosts "The Players" tournament on the PGA Tour every year. The course is open to all golfers - as long as you are prepared to invest the not exactly cheap green fee. TPC Sawgrass uses a special form of yield management: there is a minimum price, but this can increase depending on demand. For an extra charge, you can book a personal caddie instead of a forecaddie - and of course you can hardly get past the very well-stocked pro store without treating yourself to a souvenir. In short, including a restaurant visit per day and golfer, you can quickly reach a total investment of USD 1,000.

In the footsteps of the stars on the Stadium Course

In return, however, you follow in the footsteps of golfing greats such as Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and, of course, Tiger Woods - Martin Kaymer also entered his name on the list of winners in 2012. The consistently perfect condition of the course shows that the facility attaches great importance to an exceptional golfing experience. After all, you can play what is probably the most famous Par 3 in the world here, the 17th fairway. Around 70,000 golf balls land in the water every year - and every golfer receives a bag tag showing this fairway as a memento of their round; after the round, you can have your name engraved in the clubhouse. The Parkland Course brings a lot of water into play, and not just on hole 17. If you have the pleasure of playing the course in preparation for The Players, you can also expect extremely challenging Rough. If you want to enjoy the course, amateur golfers should opt for a medium tee box - but you should at least treat yourself to the view from the professional tee from time to time. Incidentally, architect Dye made sure that two consecutive holes are never exposed to the same wind direction.

TPC Sawgrass: Varied and challenging

As you would expect, the course offers a very varied and challenging design. The par 4 on the fourth hole combines the elements of the course, bunkers, water and undulating green to create a very beautiful but also difficult course. In general, you often notice that it is not only the water - sometimes frontal, sometimes lateral - but also the entire terrain and the course layout that determine the difficulty of the course. The fact that the sixteenth hole, a Par 5, is considered the second easiest may come as a surprise to many golfers. In addition to a dogleg on the left, a massive tree on the way to the green and, of course, the water lurking to the right of the green provide plenty of excitement. The highlight of every round is certainly the famous 17th with its island green. Originally, Dye wanted to surround the green with sand, but it was only on the advice of his wife Alice that he decided to use water, creating a legend of golf course design with a maximum length of just 137 yards. The final hole with water on the left and a mixture of bunkers and Rough on the right in front of the green also requires full concentration.

The Stadium Course is definitely a place of longing - the design, maintenance and service on and off the course are just right. If possible, you should also take a look at the mighty clubhouse - when do you ever have the opportunity to get so close to the greats of golf?