Ask most PGA Tour players, and other than the majors, winning The Players Championship is a career-changing – and defining – event.
It’s a tournament every professional has circled on their calendar, knowing a victory at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course will not only elevate their status against the world’s best, it’ll also put them in position to compete in – and win – the four major championships.
This year, the prestige – and pressure – is turned up a notch.
FrontPageBets takes a look at some best bets and golfers to watch as The Players Championship tees off at Pete Dye's Stadium Course.
Not only is this one of the best fields of the season – 43 out of the top 50 in the world are teeing it up Thursday in Ponte Verde Beach, Fla., as the first round begins – but they’ll also be playing for a record purse of $25 million.
Oh, and then there’s the course: one of the toughest layouts on the circuit, including perhaps the most famous – and intimidating – par 3 in the game: No. 17 and its island green.
Some of the best shots in a golfer’s life need to be hit here, leaving room for the dramatic and the draining. Which is why we, the fans, tune in.
So as the four-day, 72-hole event tees off on Pete Dye’s masterpiece, FrontPageBets takes a look at some of the top prop bets that come with playing TCP Sawgrass.
Hole-in-one odds
In the event’s history, there have been 31 holes-in-one at TPC Sawgrass over four of the par 3s on the par-72 layout.
According to DraftKings, the odds of a golfer getting a hole-in-one on any of the Stadium Course’s par-3s in the first round are +300. The odds of a player getting an ace at any time on any hole during the four-day event sit at -225.
There have been 10 aces at the iconic 17th island green, which plays about 137 yards, with the last one coming last year from Shane Lowry.
The odds for a hole-in-one to happen on No. 17 through any of the four rounds is +250.
The 177-yard third hole has seen the fewest holes-in-one with just three, while No. 13 at 180 yards has the most with 11.
Fred Couples is the only golfer to ace more than one at the Stadium Course – No. 17 in 1997 and No. 13 in 2006. Both of those holes-in-one came in the final round.
How many golf balls will find water at No. 17?
Of course, making a hole-in-on on No. 17 would be epic, but just hitting the green is pretty darn good, too. Even for professional golfers.
The alternative is all wet.
Missing the green at the island hole will result in a water ball and penalty stroke, derailing a round in a hurry.
According to BetMGM, the Over/Under for total golf balls in the water at the 17th is 54.5. The over (55 or more) sits at -125 odds, while the under (54 or fewer) is +100.
Over the last 20 years, the average number of balls in the water on No. 17 during the four-round tournament is 49, according to the PGA Tour and ShotLink, which began tracking the data in 2003.
The least amount of balls that found the drink was 28 in 2014; the most was 93 in 2007. Last year, 57 balls made a splash at 17.
Albatross odds
There have been six albatrosses in the tournament’s course history. An albatross is scoring three shots under par on a single hole. (An eagle is 2-under and a birdie is 1-under par on a single hole.)
The odds for one to happen this week are +1200, according to DraftKings.
Russell Henley was the last player to make an albatross at The Players, accomplishing it in last year’s event when he made his 2 on the par-5 11th hole from 240 yards away.
Hunter Mahan was the first player to ever make an albatross at the Stadium Course in 2007 during the second round on No. 11, which plays 550-plus yards. The next day, however, Peter Lonard scored a 2 on the par-5 second hole.
And one of the rarest feats in golf actually happened three years in a row at The Players: Rafa Cabrera Bello in 2017 (No. 16), Brooks Koepka in 2018 (No. 16) and Harris English in 2019 (No. 11).
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