“There’s Nothing You Can Do”: Tales From An Unattainable Day On The Seventeenth Gap In The Gamers

By
Nebojsa Vujinovic
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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – Shortly after midday on Saturday, the primary victims of the seventeenth gap arrived at TPC Sawgrass Stadium.

Scotty Scheffler, who has gained two of his previous three begins on the PGA Tour, drew the brief straw with gamers resume and was the primary participant to hit a tee in seventeenth, one of the vital entertaining or notorious holes in golf.

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Scheffler obtained off his tee field for the appropriate distance and measured the 35 mph winds blowing in his face as he checked out Inexperienced Island (really a peninsula) at 17. . His shot was too lengthy. The ball bounced as soon as earlier than falling into the pool behind the inexperienced.

After watching what Schaeffler did, Zander Shaveli, the world’s seventh-ranked Olympic gold medalist, was elected to an eight iron. The wind blew whereas his ball was in flight, simply because it did on the sixteenth gap within the last spherical of the 2023 Masters, and his ball fell into the pool that did not make it to the inexperienced. Then he went and doubled the eighteenth gap 4 occasions.

Brooks Koepka, a four-time large champ, additionally selected to hit the arduous 8-times. Like Chaveles, his shot was woefully brief and ended up getting moist.

Identical to that, three of the world’s greatest gamers noticed their possibilities of successful the Gamers Championship (and even making the reduce) evaporate on the seventeenth gap. Shaveli, who was 4 underneath 4 after brushing Byrdie on 5/16, ended up in a bogey. He made a quad bogey 8 on the 18th gap.

“There’s nothing you are able to do,” Koepka stated. “We hit a storm. I do not suppose it was any tougher for anybody else right here than once I, Scotty and Xander performed. Once we began enjoying it was my first shot of the day, and I believed it was blowing actually arduous.”

In truth, the winds didn’t subside for nearly anybody on Saturday. After heavy rain and thunderstorms stopped play on Thursday and Friday, gamers ending the primary spherical and starting the second had been greeted with cooler temperatures and winds of as much as 43 mph.

On Thursday and Friday mixed, the gamers’ cumulative rating on the seventeenth gap was over 3 factors. There have been solely 4 balls that fell into the water and there have been 22 birds. On Saturday, the cumulative rating was over 66. 29 balls had been hit within the water and solely two birds had been hit. 5 of the primary eight gamers dropped their ball into the drink.

The worst half for Koepka, Shaveli and Schaeffler on Saturday was that they needed to play the seventeenth gap twice, after finishing the final three holes of the primary spherical after which beginning the second spherical in tenth place. at first And the Second rounds of the NCAA Championship.

The outcomes had been higher for less than Schaeffel, who hit the tee to 53 toes and two equal penalty kicks. Schaeffler’s second try when he was 17 was even worse, hitting a Hussell that fell into the pond midway between the inexperienced canoe and the previous flower.

Koepka’s tee shot about 70 yards was brief and moist. Scheffler made a double ghost; Koepka hit the triple.

“It is luck,” Koepka stated. “It is a kind of issues that simply attempt to take the appropriate shot. It is like something. You attempt to take the appropriate shot, and I hope you do not take off or die when you do.”

Nobody’s luck within the gap has been worse than Koepka, who over 20 has completed seventeenth in seven video games with the gamers since 2015.

Longtime NBC Sports activities watcher Jeff Younger stated he is labored on the seventeenth gap for 20 years. Till this yr, solely two gamers – Fred Funk and Lauren Roberts – had been remembered hitting 7-irons on gap 3. On Saturday, 9 of the primary 15 gamers hit 7-irons. Matt Kochar hit a six iron.

The selection of the membership precipitated quite a lot of anxiousness among the many packers and gamers. Instantly after Billy Hurschel hits his 7-iron shot with the ball nonetheless within the air, he informed Sweet, Mark Fulcher, “It is over the inexperienced, Foch. I knew it! I knew it! Nobody else.” Fulcher stood nonetheless and stated nothing. Horschel made a Stealth Triple 6 and dropped 4 pictures on the final two holes of the primary spherical.

With the wind behind him on gap quantity 5, Kupka stated he hit Iron 7 about 205 yards away. On the seventeenth gap, his ball hit 105 yards with the identical racket. Rory McIlroy went Iron 7 for 123 yards on the seventeenth gap; He often hits it between 185 and 190 yards.

“You look in there, and it is a large goal to hit the inexperienced,” McIlroy stated. “Mainly, it is an enormous, large dart board, and you are like, ‘Simply hit it wherever in there.'”

That was simpler stated than carried out, even for one of the best ironclad gamers on the planet. Any shot on the inexperienced grass – and even on the island and dry – was thought-about a victory. Australian Mark Leishman clenched his fist and jiggled after hitting his shot as much as 7 toes. Zach Johnson, the subsequent US Ryder Cup captain, hit his shot to about 63 toes. He jokingly threw up his proper fist in celebration.

Not everybody struggled. Justin Thomas performed seventeenth twice on Saturday and pulled away with a pair of paris. Thomas stated he obtained textual content messages Friday night time from Tiger Woods and Fred Coples, who had been teasing him about how arduous the pit was.

“They each had been giving me a tough time final night time about how arduous it was [on Saturday]Thomas stated. “I actually loved it from them whereas they weren’t enjoying it and I needed to, with how arduous it was. … It is extra enjoyable when somebody tells you a narrative about them doing it versus what you need to do.”

After Henrik Stenson hits his ball safely on the inexperienced with an 8-iron tray, Gareth Lord reaches into his bag for a cigarette.

“On the inexperienced facet, I am wanting ahead to this,” Lord stated.

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