There are few golf courses that please as much as TPC Sawgrass. When I first played it (1982-3) it was by an order of magnitude the most challenging and interesting course I had ever played (and at that time I had already played all the courses on the British Open rota, plus Dornoch 100+ times, plus Pebble Beach and Spyglass (each at least 10 times, and Harbourtown, all the great Irish courses except Portrush, San Francisco, etc.). I was then (and always have been) a hack, but a well-travelled hack at least....
Later in my life (1987-1990) I lived in Ponte Vedra and played TPC-S 3-5 times a year. Even though the course had been significantly softened from the "hit and stop a 5-iron on the hood of a 1958 Buick" days, the course never disappointed me, particularly when I shot 70 from the middle tees....)
. Why?:
1. It is a course of amazing variety--lengths, directions, challenges, even elevations--even though it was fashioned from the dredgings of a sea level swamp.
2. The greens are subtle rather than radical (unlike the most pretentious of modern courses)
3. The bunkering is restrained and never truly penal (if you get in you can get out, and get out for better or worse based on your risk/reward predilection and/or skill
4. 17 is a stroke of design genius, which through its penultimate placement in the routing makes 12 at Augusta (yawn.....) look like chopped liver (viz. The Masters 2012).
If you could replace Finchem with a real person and dynamite the new clubhouse, the course's tournament could easily be the 5th major (or 4th, if we can ever get rid of the PGA....). Until then, just watch and enjoy.
Rich