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Ryan Fox aces iconic 17th at The Players Championship
Logan Swinkels • March 15th, 2024 9:10 am
Ryan Fox aced the iconic 17th hole at The Players Championship in 2024
New Zealand golf fans have woken to news this morning of Ryan Fox doing what many would deem to be near-impossible: hitting a hole-in-one on TPC Sawgrass' iconic 17th hole.
The island green presents quite the challenge to those who face it. Just 124 yards from tee box to hole, the entire green is surrounded by water.
The PGA Tour began keeping stats on how many balls were lost to that water in 2003, with a total of 983 balls finding the drink prior to the 2024 edition of The Players Championship.
With records dating back to 1983, Fox has become the first player in the history of The Players Championship to follow up an eagle on the 16th by scoring an ace on the 17th. Impressive.
This year marks the 50th running of the tournament - with a total prize pool of USD$25 million, it's also the biggest purse on the PGA Tour's schedule. The winner is set to take home USD$4.5 million.
Leading into playing at TPC Sawgrass, Fox had placed T35 at the Cognizant Classic and T41 at the Phoenix Open, along with missing the cut at the Mexico Championship and Torrey Pines this year.
At the time of publishing, Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy are tied for first after finishing the opening round 7-under par, holding a one stroke lead over Nick Taylor. Jason Day is the top Australian at 5-under to be T4 alongside Tom Hoge and Ludvig Aberg.
Meanwhile, Fox is flying the New Zealand flag in a ten-way tie for twelfth on 3-under par. His stretch of play across the 16th and 17th holes were the highlight, along with a birdie on the 4th and 11th. His opening round also included three bogeys on the 14th, 15th and 18th.
The 37-year-old Kiwi is putting himself in good stead to make the cut in Florida. But no matter where he finishes, Fox has already etched his name into The Players' record books.
