LAMM AT LARGE: It’s Time For The Players

A phrase you’ll hear often this week at the Players is the golfers “will need every club in their bag to play the Stadium Course”.

It’s become a cliche, and like all cliches it’s true. And done by design.

When then PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman and architect Pete Dye started collaborating in the early 70s, Beman insisted he wanted a course that favored no golfer. He wanted a combination of short and long holes, equal number left and right doglegs, reachable but high risk par-5s, short and long par-3s and challenging greens. He also insisted no two holes be routed in the same direction so the wind wouldn’t favor any player.

Initially, a lot of players were unhappy with the course when the first Players was played on it in 1982. They called the greens unfair and adjustment were made over the next several years. Soon, the PGA Tour players were singing praise for their home course.

And now, 40 years later the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course is rated one of the best in the world. That’s no accident.