What are a player’s relief options if they hit their ball in the water at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass?

At The Gamers Championship, there are all the time going to be at the very least some professional golfers who hit their ball within the water on the par-3 seventeenth gap at TPC Sawgrass.

There’s by no means been a spherical within the historical past of The Gamers at TPC Sawgrass through which at the very least one participant did not discover the water. The document for the fewest balls within the water in a single spherical on the seventeenth is one within the 2014 third spherical.

When a participant hits their ball within the water at No. 17, although, they should make an attention-grabbing choice about what to do subsequent. It would not matter how or the place a participant’s ball goes within the water — lengthy, quick, to the aspect, off a bulkhead, rolling by the inexperienced or spinning off the entrance. It doesn’t matter what, that ball is gone and will not be hit once more. The water is simply too deep.

Which means a participant who hits their ball within the water has to take a penalty stroke. The water surrounding the inexperienced is taken into account a yellow stake hazard or penalty space, that means {that a} participant can’t merely drop inside two clublengths of the place the ball went within the water (apart from, that may be again within the water for many golfers) as could be the case with a lateral pink stake hazard. A participant who hits their ball within the water at No. 17 has two selections for the best way to take reduction:

They will re-tee the ball and hit one other shot from the teeing floor, looking for the inexperienced in three pictures, or
They will go to the tournament-designated drop zone, drop the ball within the drop circle with a penalty stroke after which attempt to hit the inexperienced from there

The drop zone on the par-3 seventeenth gap is an roughly 80-yard shot with a clumsy angle located to the left of the tee field for the opening and the inexperienced advanced. Frankly, it is a more sensible choice to hit the tee shot once more with a straight-on longer shot than an 80-yard shot off turf with a more durable angle.