9th at Sawgrass...

[Evan_Green]

...is one of my favorite holes to watch the pros play - lot of strategy/options - great green complex - interesting angles cool bunkers. Can be an eagle or a bogey very easily.


However, I remember it being quite a hard par 5 to play for a mere mortal when i was out there...i still enjoyed it very much for all of the above reasons - quite a challenge to play it right...


what are others thoughts on this hole?

[Matthew Rose]

I like it too. I actually think technology has made it better by making it a little more reachable than it used to be.... I like how the creek is set in such a way that you have less room to drive the ball on the right side which is where the better angle is.... as you go left, the end of the fairway is further from the tee but the angle gets worse.

[Tom_Doak]

I like how the creek is set in such a way that you have less room to drive the ball on the right side which is where the better angle is.... as you go left, the end of the fairway is further from the tee but the angle gets worse.

Mr. Dye did that often, on everything from short par-4's to par-5's.  He figured you could choose between the shorter approach or the better angle, but he didn't have to give you both.

[Peter Pallotta]

I've often wondered why modest courses designed on flat sites and built on small budgets don't utilize this technique more often, with or without actual water. It doesn't seem too hard a thing to do (or to conceive of doing): i.e. design and build your Par 4 or Par 5 or short Par 4 and shape/bunker the green with such a hazard already in mind, and then at the end have a guy on a bobcat or a couple of guys with shovels dig out a shallow, angled trench all the way across the fairway and cover the sides & bottom of the trench with on-site rocks and gravel -- aka, a dry river/creek bed that's 240 yards out on the preferred side and that angles all the way down to 180 yards out on the safer side. Seems an easy way to add at least some interest and challenge to an otherwise nondescript golf hole, and a cost effective way of sprucing up some uninteresting topography.           

[Tommy Williamsen]

The par fives at Sawgrass are brilliant. They challenge the tour player and are probably 4.75 par and challenge mortals like me who can make the occasional birdie or double.

[Matt Kardash]

I preferred the hole when it was unreachable. It was nice to see a legit 3-shot hole. To make that happen they would have to add a new tee behind the 8th green. That type of hole unfortunately just doesn't exist anymore. Also, that green was not designed to be hit in two.

[JMEvensky]

I preferred the hole when it was unreachable. It was nice to see a legit 3-shot hole. To make that happen they would have to add a new tee behind the 8th green. That type of hole unfortunately just doesn't exist anymore. Also, that green was not designed to be hit in two.

For anyone who played the hole 30 years ago, the idea that someone would even try to hit that green in 2 was inconceivable. Watching TW hit it with a 6 iron was crazy.