Boy's Weekend

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 Rafael Martinez- The Green Magazine Publisher /

I had the opportunity to visit TPC Sawgrass with a couple of friends. My good buddy Roy Branan came along and had an amazing time. Our first impression of TPC Sawgrass was: “Wow!” The facilities are just fantastic. It was like being a kid in a candy store. You see the Players Championship every year on television—and the famed 17th hole—but you don’t realize there are 17 other holes that are just as pretty. It’s a tough course, but not impossible.

We ended up getting a tour of the venue. It’s called the Tour Player Experience. They took us through the hallowed grounds and into the Champions’ Locker Room which is a locker, within a locker, within a locker. The PGA tour players have their own room and then there is another locker room which is for the Champions. You walk in there and you feel this sense of history. You see all the names on the walls and the lockers. It’s a small room, but in a sense it’s an inner sanctum of the “Who’s Who” that have won the tournament.

The first day we got there it was rainy and drizzly because Hurricane Hannah had just missed the area. But I wasn’t going to pass up a starter round. There’s a course that is really pretty and you never hear about it and it’s called Dye’s Valleys. It’s an awesome course—really challenging. But you hearof TPC Sawgrass and you only think of one course. I ended up playing about 16 holes and went back to the hotel.

The next day we tackled the stadium course. Roy chickened out and ended up taking lessons instead of playing the course. In all seriousness, he really wanted the opportunity to take in the Tour Academy. That place is just awesome.

From the jump, the course is extremely difficult. We played it from the tips and there was an immediate firestorm around the question of what clubs would be best. On some holes I took one or two clubs less and on others I took one or two clubs more. The wind was dead in your face and the ball was going nowhere. The front nine was tough, but for me the back nine was a little bit more challenging. The highlight for me was playing the last couple of holes.

It was going pretty well when I got to the 16th hole. My caddy said, “If you get a 22, which is 10 over on just the last three, then you did good.” It was almost like Yoda telling me: “My son, just worry about strokes above the norm and you’ll be fine.”

Being the cocky little Dominican kid I am, I said, “Ten strokes? This is like nothing.” I proceeded to go to the 16th tee and hit a great drive. So much so, that I was able to think about hitting a 3 wood to try to get on the green in 2. I closed my eyes, swung out of my shoes and the ball went straight and far. I’m in the back of the green in 2. Now, I’m looking at the caddy and saying, “Did you mean 10 over, not two under?”

That was my curse. The golf god said, “You know what, you’re a little smart ass. Let me teach you what this thing is all about.” I get to my ball. I was probably about 30 feet away from the cup. The first putt I left short by about ten feet. I missed the second putt too. Though I was originally putting for an eagle, I felt confident that I would get a birdie. I ended up with a par.

Next up was the famous 17th hole. There it was—the hole that everybody talks about. The one that I was looking forward to. It’s an island green. My goal was to get a ball on there in 1, putt out for my par, and keep it moving. The caddy said, “Hey the yardage is 125 yards from the distance we are going to play. If you want to, we’ll go over to where the pros play. The average there is 145.”

I don’t know what got into me. I didn’t go back to the cart to get an extra club. It was so exciting. I just thought about all of those days playing stickball on the old block and here I was facing the 17th green that you see all over the world. I got up there and suddenly I know I’m not holding enough club. And more importantly I realized how much of a mistake it was to boast about the possibility of getting pars on the last three holes.

I ended up pushing the ball and missed the green by 6 or 7 feet—straight into the water! Then I thought, just give me another ball and I can make it. The second ball, just like the first, found it’s way into the water. So it struck me that I should just go back and get the club I needed, but then I saw that people were behind us. Ball three—you guessed it—into the water. After the fifth re-tee, I finally got the last ball onto the island and putted for an 8.