Russell Knox duffs 3 shots in the water at TPC Sawgrass’ island hole, makes sextuple bogey

The par-3 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, for all the hype, should not be a difficult golf hole for the best in the world. This is a stock gap wedge for these guys, who hit the shot thousands of times per year and would, without the crowd and that pesky lake, probably drop their shot on top of the pin almost every time.

But that crowd, the cameras, and the lake are there and every year we see players make a mess of this short little hole. There’s been carnage all over the course on Saturday and that includes the 17th, where some increased winds are resulting in player after player leaving it short and in the drink.

Then there was Russell Knox, exposed out there on the tee and needing four shots just to get across. Three came from the tee box and one from the drop area that at long last landed safely on the green. The most uncomfortable shot may have been the middle tee ball, which was a cold shank that damn near hit the decorative island with a tree on it way off to the side.

Knox is a local and is one of the more consistent players on Tour, but this disaster took him from 8-under and within striking distance of Jason Day’s lead to 2-under and a full 11 shots back. When it was all over, he put a sextuple bogey 9 on the board and walked off acknowledging the crowd’s cheers for his accomplishments.