TPC Sawgrass

 We've just seen the Dye's dynamite enhanced work at Austin CC on the TV for an uninspired Match Play Bomb & Gouge event. Irish Walker Cupper and author Ivan Morris asked an internet question to which I responded that men's professional gold holds little to no interest for me. Watching putting to determine outcome is just not for me. So in contrast to Austin, today I'll offer more on the Dyes. I present TPC Sawgrass Stadium for you. It is a course of high intellectual design with much to teach you.

I'm a big fan of the Dyes and and am fortunate to have one out my back door for me to play almost daily. It remains one of the most underrated courses in Dye portfolio. I've played maybe 50 Dye courses since my first - Delray Dunes, Boynton Beach, FL  I loved it and my love affair personally dates from 1968.  Jack Nicklaus was tasked for Harbor Town and called on Pete and Alice, the two also did the Briar at the Playboy Club in Wisconsin. I have loved their uses of angles and creative deception from day 1.

I recently played Sawgrass again and just last week visited Heron Pines on HHI. Sawgrass is very special, I have more respect for it than ever, never mind that it is over-seeded for the professionals, it is resort course (A very expensive one) and Bermuda turf is what you will generally play it on, it is in overseen not for the Player's Championship.

It is a far better and more representative Dye Course that the perennially higher ranked Whistling Straits - which has at least two awful holes, perhaps the two worst on a single touted golf course world-wide (but I digress). 

So many Dye courses lose nuances when adjusted for the professionals, TPC Sawgrass is no exception. I recommend listening to Derek Duncan's Feed. The. Ball. podcast with Allan MacCurrach discussing White Oak, the newest most unobtainable course earning Golf Digest's Best New Private Course last year.  Allan discusses the evolution of Dye's approach to shaping and mentions Sawgrass specifically. Since it has been over 20 years since I first played Sawgrass, changes were apparent to me. 

We have an Iconic tournament venue geared towards better players to be best played with the greens lightning fast.  This is not what Pete's original task was and the greens have been modified for the professionals. Playing, the greens weren't up to tournament speed so they don't always present as clever as they are, the contours much more subtle than they could be. They have been softened (as has much of the course) since creation, the greens as a result of the PGATour obsession with lightning fast greens.

Lost in all of that is just how well-designed this golf course really is. The routing undergoes many changes in direction, some radically more than one gets an idea just from seeing this course on TV. I also find it extremely aesthetically pleasing, this trip around was my first time in person (I have always seen it with stands in place and that is a pity in retrospect) or seeing on TV what the course looks like without stands and tournament trappings. The 16th and 17th amphitheater is an extremely tranquil arena without all those artificial structures, obviously this is the highlight for most visiting and with it is so well-constructed and shaped - it really is a treat.

Looking at the course, it is masterfully routed with all those direction changes. Routing from Apple Maps my Dye is the header photo

one can see no two consecutive holes are in the same direction (Top left starts 1 and 2 and the second nine is easily worked backwards.

The Par 3 holes might be less impressive as a group but 17 is iconic and dominates many player's thoughts from the first tee - awaiting the inevitable. The putting surfaces are what makes the threes superior with run off areas and  feeding contours to the seemingly 275 yard long 8th.

The Par 4's are magnificent in their variety and use of angles, but the 12th has to be called out as a stinking pile of dogstuff created by the PGATour, a glorified long Par 3.5 masquerading as a "drivable par 4". Alice refused to endorse it prior to her passing. The modern equipment in the hands of the elite player negate some of the brilliance of design in Par 4 holes, yet holes 4, 5, 6, 10, 14, 15 all stand out in their exceptional design. 

 Par 5 holes everyone knows 17, but without crowds is not as fear-inducing as one might expect, it presented a variety of options to easily make a par 5 with a legitimate birdie chance on my visit lacking my A game. The Par 5 second is not so straightforward with but a small twist in fairway shaping - much more apparent playing it  (Most of us as a three shot) and again TV dulls what is here. Holes 9 & 11 are notably superior Par 5 designs, an area the Dyes truly excelled (And the type of hole that I feel strongly is the most challenging for an architect to create true excellence). Hole 9 is one example of why tree can usefully determine strategy in places, the angles created are sublime.

Slower green speeds with greater contour of the greens is usually seen in holes of similar intent on other Dye courses and would further increase the quality of this course. However - the missive of this course - to host and test modern elite golfers with every engineering advancement at their disposal negates that need. PGA professionals would howl with greater contour and slower speeds on these putting surfaces.

This is not a Mackenzian ideal course, it is an iconic TV course that exceeds its expectations, unlike some (Whistling Straits, MVGC and others) which just don't have the goods on the ground. This course is not a slog - it has real interest. It has to be considered a lifetime goal and bucket list course and I do recommend giving it a go with the recommendation to play early in the day to avoid the thunderstorms and try the Hilton over the Marriott.