At THE PLAYERS tournament, a highly unconventional anniversary was celebrated

This week, from March 14th to 17th, the flagship tournament at the PGA Tour level, THE PLAYERS, is taking place.

On Friday, March 15th, during the second round of the competition, what seemed like a fairly standard occurrence took place - a ball, after a not very successful shot, landed in the water. However, it became known that this was the one-thousandth water shot on the 17th hole since 2003. It was from this time onwards that enhanced statistics began to be utilized, enabling the calculation of such a number of balls. The golfer who achieved this "feat" is Beau Hossler.

It's worth noting that the Players Championship (THE PLAYERS) has the largest prize pool among all golf tournaments - $25 million. Typically, it features the top 50 players in the world rankings, but unlike major championships, it belongs to the PGA Tour and is not an official event in other tours.

As of 2023, the winner receives $4.5 million, which is 18% of the largest prize pool in golf, and also earns 80 points in their world ranking, the highest share apart from majors, where winners receive 100 points. For comparison, winners of other leading tournaments receive between 65 and 70 points.

By the way, American golfer Scottie Scheffler won one of the prime tournaments on the PGA Tour level, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, last week.