The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass is peak Pete Dye.
Dye is the man who designed the course and his brief was clear: create a course that allows fans to have great views, but which generates drama to excite those fans.
Even before Dye conceived of Sawgrass he was known for his design tics, but this course took many of them and extended them to the max.
There are some golfers who like what Dye created: the distinctive fairways, the quirky greens, the fairway-length bunkers, the vast amount of water and the island green at 17.
Others are not so sure.
The course is a little like walking the plank: you either get to the end or you fall in.
And that’s why so many player records there are either feast or famine.
It’s really quite remarkable characteristic and many of the world’s greatest golfers have fallen foul of it.
Let’s take a look.
Scottie Scheffler
When the World No. 1 first rocked up to TPC Sawgrass he missed the cut. At the second time of asking he did play at the weekend, but two rounds of 76 meant he finished a lowly T55.
It’s not the most promising start but guess what? He then won back-to-back in 2023 and 2024!
Last year was somewhat middling (T20) but having gone eight sub-70 rounds in a row, he failed to beat that mark three times.
Rory McIlroy
At first glance the Northern Irishman’s record is pure boom or bust.
He’s played Sawgrass 15 times. Seven of those visits reaped top 20 finishes and six of them saw him head home on Friday night.
That doesn’t leave a lot of average golf in-between.
Closer inspection reveals another oddity: He has won the Players Championship twice (in 2019 and 2025) but those are the only two occasions when he was sitting in the top 10 with 18 holes to play.
Xander Schauffele
The Californian is yet to win at TPC Sawgrass but there’s a real echo of McIlroy’s record in his.
He was runner-up on the course on debut in 2018 and then again in 2024.
But four of his other five finishes were outside the top 70 and even when T19 in 2023 he was never remotely contending.
Viktor Hovland
This one is simple.
The Norwegian was third in 2023 and ninth in 2022.
But otherwise? Three failures to breach the top 60 (and he twice missed the cut).
Brian Harman
You’d maybe think that the longer a guy played a course the less volatile his record would be, right?
The 2023 Open champion’s log book argues otherwise.
He’s played the tournament 13 times.
On four occasions he has finished top 10 (including third in 2021 and second in 2024).
But the other nine starts? Not one top 40. And only one top 50.
JJ Spaun
Ahead of last year’s Players Championship, Spaun’s record was not boom or bust.
It was bust or bust.
He’d missed the cut in 2018, withdrew in 2019, missed the cut again in 2022 and 2023, then limped home in T64 in 2024.
He didn’t break 70 once in that period and his best end of round position was T49.
Then, 12 months ago, he grabbed a share of the first round lead, hung around all week, and only lost the tournament in extra holes.
Rickie Fowler
After his first seven visits, Fowler’s Sawgrass record was utterly remarkable.
He’d missed five cuts in that time.
But the other two? Second in 2012 and winner in 2015!
It’s become a little less chaotic since then, but not much.
He’s now made 14 appearances, and he’s only finished top 40 three times (T13 in 2023 to sit alongside his win and second).
Read next: Golf’s most feared hole? The biggest Sawgrass 17th disasters
The post The strange Sawgrass records of Scheffler, McIlroy and golf’s biggest stars appeared first on Golf365.
Article Link: The strange TPC Sawgrass records of Scheffler, McIlroy and Fowler