Ahead of playing of the 2017 The Players Championship, Compleat Golfer takes a look at the numbers that count …
0 – Golfers who have won back-to-back Players tournaments, which isn’t good news for the defending champion, Jason Day of Australia.
3 – Jason Day became the third No 1-ranked golfer to win The Players Championship. The other two were Greg Norman (1994) and Tiger Woods (2001, 2013).
4 – Perhaps surprisingly, Australians have strong records at the event, with Day becoming the fourth man from Down Under to win the tournament. The others are Steve Elkington (1991, 1997), Greg Norman (1994) and Adam Scott (2004).
5 – The number of golfers who have led from start to finish to win the tournament, also known as the unofficial ‘fifth Major’. Day did so in 2016 and became the first man since Hal Sutton in 2000 to lead from start to finish.
6 -Six of the last eight winners of The Players have been international, including Jason Day (2016), Martin Kaymer (2014, Germany), KJ Choi (2011, South Korea), Tim Clark (2010, South Africa), Henrik Stenson (2009, Sweden) and Sergio Garcia (2008, Spain).
12 -The highest recorded score on the 17th hole was a 12, by Bob Tway during the third round in 2005. There have also been six holes-in-one at the 17th, the most recent by Miguel Angel Jimenez during the first round in 2002.
13 – Aaron Baddeley has dunked 13 balls into the water on the 17th since 2003, the most of any player in the field.
63 – The course record, equalled by two golfers in 2016 – Day in the first round and Colt Knost in the second. Four others have also shot 64 in the event’s history: Fred Couples (1992), Greg Norman (1994), Roberto Castro (2013) and Martin Kaymer (2014).
