Watch THE PLAYERS Championship carnage at 17th hole in Saturday’s high winds

The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass is already an iconic setting for THE PLAYERS Championship but it was absolutely brutal while dealing with Saturday’s wind.

Weather has been the biggest story at TPC Sawgrass for THE PLAYERS Championship this week as the biggest PGA Tour event of the season hasn’t honestly seen nearly enough golf being played over the first three days of action.

The first round wasn’t completed until Saturday in the late morning after Thursday and Friday saw extensive suspensions of play due to heavy rains. Even on Saturday, the play couldn’t resume until Noon ET as the precipitation continued. Once it stopped, though, another element came into the equation: gusting winds.

Throughout the day on Saturday, the winds were going crazy around TPC Sawgrass with an average over 20 mph and gusts north of 40 mph. And, naturally, it was the iconic 17th hole and its island green that ultimately drove players crazy over the course of the day in those conditions.

THE PLAYERS Championship: Saturday’s winds wreak havoc at iconic 17th hole

How bad was it trying to hit it over the water and onto the island green in the high winds? Well, just take a look at the carnage from Saturday.

And here’s a look at just how crazy the shots were from all 60 players who played the hole on Saturday with a multitude of trajectories.

Golf can be an infuriating game inherently — but that takes it to another level.

On the whole, only 36 of the 60 players who took on the 17th hole in the winds on Saturday made it onto the green. Of the 24 that missed the green, 19 of them put it in the drink. These are the best players in the world and they were having a nightmarish time with a seemingly innocuous par-3 that measures well under 150 yards.

To be sure, it wasn’t just the 17th hole that delivered an ultra-difficult test on Saturday — the scoring averages were incredibly high and playing the wind was a tall task on virtually every shot. However, it’s fitting that the island green, the lasting image of TPC Sawgrass, was the epicenter of the havoc wreaked on Saturday.

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