Feature:

In Phil's Footsteps

TPC Sawgrass Players Championship Experience Phil Mickelson

A unique package at TPC Sawgrass allows golfers to re-create the experience of Players Championship contestants

By Tom Cunneff

There are some great stadiums and arenas around the country. Madison Square Garden, Fenway Park and Lambeau Field come to mind. But how many of us have ever shot a three-pointer, hit a home run or scored a touchdown there?

But there is a stadium where you can literally walk in the footsteps of the greats, where you can hit nothing but net, send one over the Green Monster and do the Lambeau Leap.

That place is the Players Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Initiated after last year’s Players Championship, the Tour Player Experience is the closest you’re ever going to get to being a tour pro. George Plimpton would wholeheartedly approve.

But be forewarned: This is no easy walk down memory lane. The course is just as difficult as it looks on television, testing every aspect of your game. You may end up on your knees crying like a baby, and that’s just after the front nine. But it’s the most fun you’ll have being tortured on the golf course.

Upon check-in outside the 77,000-square-foot Mediterranean Revival-style clubhouse, I receive an engraved money clip and engraved leather “brag tag” with a beautiful tiled photo of the 17th hole, perhaps the most famous par 3 in the world. Even non-golfers come from all over just to see the island green. Great, just what I need: a constant reminder of the hole that will define my whole round, regardless of what I do on the other 17.

I’m then led into the inner sanctum of the players’ locker room, distinguished by high-beamed ceilings, dark-wood lockers and plaid carpeting, that is off-limits to everyone else. The friendliest of locker room attendants, Hugh Eubank, shows me to my locker, No. 112, which was used by last year’s winner Phil Mickelson. My name is engraved above his on the plate. I haven’t seen my name etched on so many objects since my wedding. I do a quick check for any loose change or notes from Butch Harmon on how to improve my driver accuracy, but it’s completely empty.