Sawgrass TPC, Pontevedra Beach, Florida, USA. The PGA Tour’s ‘fifth major’ Players Championship has been held here since 1982, and there is a hole called the ‘Tomb of the Ball’. It is the 17th hole (par 3). The length to the hole cup is only 111m (based on this year), but it is an ‘island hole’ surrounded by water, and it is difficult to ‘on green’ because the direction and strength of the wind keep changing. It swallows an average of 50 or more balls from players each year. There were only nine hole-in-ones over the past 31 years until last year. 안전놀이터
There were two hole-in-ones at this year’s Players Championship. Following Hayden Berkeley (27, USA) in the first round of the tournament on the 10th, Aaron Ray (28, England) recorded a hole-in-one in the third round on the 12th. This is the first time that there have been two hole-in-ones in one year at the 17th hole of the Players Championship.
In this game, Im Seong-jae (25) of ‘Iron Man’ drew attention. He showed off his superpower by rounding 27 holes in one day and reducing 11 strokes. He hit a 3-over par up to the ninth hole in the second round and stayed in the top 80, putting himself on the verge of missing the cut. He recorded a total of 8-under-par 208 strokes over three days, raising his ranking to a tie for 8th place.
Scotty Scheffler (27, USA), who is aiming to recapture the world ranking, took the sole lead with a total of 14 under par 202 strokes for three days. If you win, you will return to number 1 in the world rankings. World No. 1 John Lam (29, Spain) withdrew before the second round, and world No. 3 Rory McIlroy (34, Northern Ireland) was also eliminated from the cut, so the plate was laid for Schaeffler.
Korean-Australian Lee Min-woo (25) cut 6 strokes in the 3rd round and shot 12 under par 204, finishing 2 strokes short of Schaeffler in second place alone. Kim Si-woo (28), the winner of this event in 2017, finished the third round with Ahn Byeong-hun (32) and others in a tie for 26th with a 5-under-par 211 stroke. Kim Joo-hyung (21) tied for 63rd with a 1-over par and 217 strokes.