The Ghim Reaper
Players Championship: No. 17 keeps delivering magic as Doug Ghim chips in a beauty from the back edge
The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass keeps delivering highlight-reel moments on Moving Day at the Players Championship. We saw Sam Burns befuddle the booth with his own “better than most” moment en route to a Saturday 65. We watched Adam Schenk nearly putt it in the drink and then bonk it in from the fringe to salvage par. Then, just when we thought we had seen it all, Doug Ghim stepped up from island's green most remote zip code and chipped in this delicate (and dangerous) beauty for birdie. Check it out.
This could have gone so very wrong in so many ways but the man they call the Ghim Reaper is the master of fates, not the victim of them. Instead of thinning his chip straight through the green and into the water on the other side, Ghim found the perfect touch, landing it just above the ridge and letting gravity do the rest of the work. As the ball disappeared over the lip of cup, he punctuated his pitch with a fist pump fit for the signature hole of the PGA Tour’s signature event.
Even better, Ghim made par on the 18th hole, securing a third-round 66 and a score of nine-under for the tournament. It’s a stacked leaderboard and America’s money won’t be little old Doug Ghim, but he’s in this thing. If he can come out tomorrow, make one or two more miracle shots and post a score, well, who knows what could happen. No one—not you, not I, not even Wyndham Clark—can outrun the Ghim Reaper after all.