This week's 25th Players Championship is the 17th anniversary of
the one everybody remembers. Eight years after Jack Nicklaus won
the first Players at Atlanta C.C., the event moved to the TPC at
Sawgrass, where Pete Dye's fan-friendly, player-punitive Stadium
Course drew reviews that were anything but P.C. "This course is
90-percent horse manure and 10-percent luck," said J.C. Snead.
"Everyone was frustrated with Pete's diabolical course.
There was locker room talk of firing Deane [Beman], since he was
behind it all," recalls Jerry Pate, who won that week, then
pushed Beman and Dye into the lake beside the 18th green before
diving in after them.
Today nobody thinks Beman and Dye were all wet, not with their
baby approaching the majors in importance. "My swim with Jerry
Pate is not a favorite moment," Beman says dryly, "but I am
pleased with how the Players has grown. The course was too penal
at first, but we made changes to bring it to the correct side of
fair."
"Those greens can get as fast as a fireball," Dye admits with a
chuckle. "But the guy who's playing best still wins." Denying
that their synchronized swim that day was staged, he says, "No,
and I came out with nothing dry to wear, so I went into the
clubhouse and charged a new pair of pants and a shirt to Mr.
Beman."
Issue date: March 30, 1998
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