TPC at Sawgrass

The Valley Course

Players, especially those with healthy self-esteem, are likely to find the Valley Course much more enjoyable to play. It has all the classic Dye features - mounds, water, trees, and devilish green and fairway contours - but the Valley Course is a kinder, gentler layout.

The greens fees are pricey ($244 in high season on the Stadium Course) but the TPC has no trouble filling its tee sheets. The service at the club is first class, from the pro shop down to the attendants, all golfers themselves. As a private membership club, TPC access is restricted to guests of members and the Marriott at Sawgrass Resort.

The Marriott

The resort is a high-end Marriott hotel of 348 rooms and 160 adjacent villas. Located a minute's drive from the TPC on PGA Tour Blvd., the hotel, with its four-story high atrium, includes meeting facilities, a health club, tennis facilities, a golf shop (where you can reserve tee times on the TPC and other area courses), and two restaurants including the award-winning Augustine Grill, specializing in seafood including the tastiest lobster bisque this side of Maine.

Back of the hotel, an outdoor bar and very attractive pool/spa complex overlooks a wooded lagoon. Across the lagoon and between the black pines, oaks and a few red maples, you can see the beautiful par 3 13th hole of the Stadium Course.

As a Marriott guest, you also have access to Marsh Landing, an enjoyable and not too taxing layout in the gated community of the same name; Queen's Harbor, which some consider to be one of the finest courses in the area; Oak Bridge; and Sawgrass Country Club.

Sawgrass Country Club

Sawgrass CC was designed by Ed Seay, now the lead designer with the Palmer Design Group. In the 1980s, Seay redesigned several holes including the finishing holes of the West 9, which served as the back nine of the Tournament Players Championship course before the tournament moved to the players' club.

Built on flat, coastal terrain, Sawgrass CC has interesting elevations and is liberally bunkered, though Gardiner Dickenson was requested a few years ago to come in and remove some 70 bunkers.

The West's finishing holes flow along a large lake and are some of the best I have ever played. They include the treacherous 210-yard 6th over water to the green smack on the water; the short but narrow 370-yard 7th, the 430-yard 8th; and the majestic par 5 9th, whose green also lies right next to the lake. The holes provided ample drama in earlier Tournament Players Championships and when the tournament moved across the street, many Tour players, especially Tom Watson, was disappointed at first, for Watson loves the course.

Sawgrass Golf:

• TPC at Sawgrass, Page 1