80 Photo: Getty Images/Ben Jared HOLING OUT Out on a limb One notable feature of Pete Dye’s original design at TPC Sawgrass was restored for the 2025 Players Championship. For 34 years, a large oak tree was a fixture at TPC Sawgrass, framing the tee shot on the par-four sixth hole of the Pete Dye-designed Stadium course. “Pete wanted the tree to not really be in the way but wanted you to think that it was,” said TPC Sawgrass director of agronomy Jeff Plotts in a PGA Tour video. Struck by disease, the tree was removed in 2014. Ten years on, and Plotts felt the hole just wasn’t quite right. “It is a great hole, but an element was missing…” he said. The club, alongside Love Golf Design and the PGA Tour design team, decided they would try to restore a similar challenge that was set out by Dye. “If we could find a really good place for the tree – the trunk the right distance away – then we can play with the tee a little bit,” said Davis Love III, principal of Love Golf Design. “Pete had the tree in a place where it wasn’t in play, but it was intimidating.” The perfect replacement tree was found 100 yards away, on the right side of the hole’s fairway. The transplantation went ahead, and PGA Tour pros encountered the restored feature for the first time in the 2025 Players Championship. Reaction was mixed. “It is the dumbest tree I’ve ever seen,” said Matthew Fitzpatrick, not entirely tongue-in-cheek. “It messes with your mind,” said Billy Horschel. “It’s like you’re hitting under a bridge or through a tunnel,” said Rory McIlroy, the championship’s eventual winner. Like it or not, the tree had the desired effect, encouraging competitors to play a different shot shape. Posting on X, Jake Nichols (@jalnichols) said: “The sixth hole in round one of The Players had the lowest median vertical launch angle and lowest median apex height of all drives on Tour over the past year.” He highlighted a 65 feet average apex compared to 102 feet for the season. “To come here and look at it and think, ‘What would Pete say if he could see that we did that?’ You know, that’s what we want to do,” Love said to pgatour.com. “We want to honour Pete.”
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