We try our luck on the famous 17th at Sawgrass - not the one in Florida, but the replica hole at Rudding Park.
We try our luck on the famous 17th at Sawgrass - not the one in Florida, but the replica hole at Rudding Park
When you sit down to watch Sky's coverage of The Players Championship this week, it's a virtual certainty you'll ask yourself the following question...
How would I get on if I had the chance to play the par three 17th?
Well, unless you have excellent contacts or are prepared to fly to Florida and pay the $275 green fee, it will remain a pipe dream.
But what if you heard about a replica of Sawgrass' infamous 17th hole being available to play for free (see offer at the bottom of the page) in the north of England?
That's what's on offer at Rudding Park golf course, near Harrogate, where the highlight of the North Yorkshire club's six-hole Repton Short Course is an excellent reproduction of one of the most famous holes in golf.
Just like at TPC Sawgrass, the Repton replica is the course's penultimate hole so, from seeing it as you drive into the grounds to standing on the first tee, it's constantly on your mind.
With the Players Championship just days away I turned up at the Repton course with Sky Bet's golf manager John Rhodes to see how we would fare on the Yorkshire version of the iconic 17th.
At 1, 2, 3 and 4, I blocked my shots right which didn't exactly bode well as I walked onto the tee of the Sawgrass hole.
More user-friendly
Although the distance, square footage and shape are replicated, the green is actually more user-friendly than the real one. It doesn't have the front bunker, the edges are tilted inwards and it's deeper so that balls don't bound off the back.
But, given that the hole has been swivelled to offer more depth, it also means the target isn't as wide and that potentially spelt disaster for me given that I'd been blocking everything right.
As it turned out (see picture above) I avoided a watery grave by a matter of inches! Yet again, I hit a bit of a blocky one but, to my relief, it just carried the Yorkshire stone surrounding the green (there to give the hole a bit of a local spin rather than the Pete Dye-style wooden sleepers at Sawgrass) and the rough stopped it dead. Phew!
John, meanwhile, hit a nice nine-iron pin high and then holed his 15 footer for a memorable birdie two which helped him complete the course in level par.
Surprisingly, given that we like a bet, we weren't actually playing for money but, if you were playing with your mates, a wager would be a great way to ramp up the pressure even further on a hole that will seriously test your nerve anyway.
A quick whizz around the six-hole Repton Short Course (it took us 45 minutes) is an ideal way of getting in a bit of golf over lunch/after work or as a warm-up for Rudding's Championship 18-hole, par 72 Hawtree Course.
* Receive a
Free round on the Repton Short Course and a warm-up on the Driving Range before end of May. Call 01423 873400 and quote 'Sky Sports'.
