The island green

The 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass garners more attention than any par 3 in golf (save perhaps for the 12th at Augusta National), much of it negative.

Lorne Rubenstein in the Toronto Globe and Mail has an excellent, though critical story on it, the headline setting the tone: Island green just a gimmick. Rubenstein notes that the green has spawned a series of copies across golf's landscape and mercifully calls for a moratorium on island greens from here on out.

As for the 17th at the TPC Sawgrass, golf is stuck with it and that isn't altogether a bad thing, whatever its inability to fit with the flow of the rest of the course.

Geoff Shackelford (geoffshackelford.com), who is not given to generously dispensing praise, nonetheless notes in this post that "the atmosphere and videoboards make it an incredible place to hang out," and in another post, makes this observation: "For a Wednesday it was remarkably festive out on the course, all highlighted by the action on 17."

-- John Strege