Tournament Players Club
(Stadium), FL, USA    

The 11th, our favourite hole on the course.

11^th, 545 yards: A terrific do-I-or-don't-I par five. This hole actually deserves all the attention that is thrust upon the 17^th. The hole is just long enough to discourage most players from going for the green in two (even though the extremely wide fairway encourages the player to hit a big drive). The heart of this hole is actually with the lay-up second shot -- where to go? The left fairway across the water is relatively narrow, at an angle to the player, could bring a tree short and left of the water into play and has little room for error. Laying up down the right can get the player just as close to the green, but this is far from a throw-away lay-up as the tree in the right side of the fairway (that actually overhang the fairway) and forces the player closer to the water. Many Tour players decide where to lay up based on the hole location on this topsy-turvy green: If the hole is left, they lay up right; if the hole is right, they lay up left.

14^th, 450 yards: Another visually intimidating tee shot to a generous fairway. The tee shot seems to favor a fade away from the trouble and toward the hill on the right while a draw 'fits the eye' for the approach. Full marks.

16^th, 495 yards: A reachable par five that reverses the order of the 14^th: a draw off the tee (to a huge fairway) and a fade into the green that slopes to the right (and the water). As with the 11^th, the lay-up involves much more than just advancing the ball. There is a large tree to the left and short of the green that plays havoc with any shot hit to the left side of the fairway away from the water. If a player wants to have a simple pitch for a good chance at birdie, he must flirt with the water to some degree with his lay-up. The nicely contoured green allows players to use the left-to-right slope to get their long approaches close to a right hole location.

18^th, 440 yards: One of Dye's best finishing hole and a highly original hole the day it opened. The strategy is simple: play a brave tee shot down the left side near the water and have a straightforward approach to a green angled to you or bail out to the right and have both tree problems and a much more difficult angle into the green. In fact, often a player, because of the trees, would have to throw the ball out over the lake and hope that it fades back to dry land. However, the trees that have been planted since the course opened have not done the hole any favors. With such a difficult tee shot, the less courageous player faces enough punishment with a longer approach and a difficult angle of approach.

The golfer can be aware that this course was built primarily for The Players Championship. Yet, the 'stadium mounding' does not overwhelm the player. The mounding can look awkward and artificial when not full of spectators, but this impression really only hits home on the last hole. A friend of the authors is fond of saying how he 'saved par from the fourth row' on the 18^th.

At the end of the day, many people remember TPC-Stadium for the wrong reasons: for all the water and for the 17^th hole in particular. The truly outstanding points are the terrific green complexes (with plenty of closely-mown chipping areas), the strategic merit in so many holes, the course's balance, and the lack of a single indifferent hole. Finally, Dye and MacKenzie share an uncanny ability to make holes look much harder than they actually play.

While the short term impact of the TPC Stadium on golf architecture was bad (many, including Dye himself, tried to 'outdo' or 'copy' TPC), after a few years a new breed of designers emerged, several of them having been part of Dye's team. In addition to serving as a good example for other designers, Dye should be credited for being such a strong mentor. Many of today's best architects cut their teeth under him. And at TPC, they got to watch Dye at his original best.

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