What would 15-handicap shoot at Players Championship? Now we know

What would an Average Joe shoot at the U.S. Open? At Augusta National? Or at any course prepped to PGA Tour-level specifications? It’s a fun scenario to ponder yet nearly impossible to get an accurate read of how a mid-level recreational player would fare on the same course where Tour players tee it up.

Until this week.

On Wednesday, ahead of the first round of the Players Championship, the PGA Tour staged the second iteration of the Creator Classic, an eight-hole showdown featuring some of the game’s most-followed social media stars. The 10 participants included representatives from YouTube and podcast stalwarts Bob Does Sports, Barstool and No Laying Up, and encompassed a wide swath of abilities, from winner Grant Horvat’s reported +2 handicap to Barstool’s Trent Ryan, whose reported handicap is 17.

As the field’s Everyman participant, Ryan became a sort of stand-in for the rest of us, and his performance revealed plenty about what an “average” player could expect to shoot on a Stadium Course setup prepped for the pros.

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For starters, Ryan did not hit a single fairway. Relatable! His driving distance was endearingly average, maxing out at 214 yards on his second hole, No. 11, where he still found a giant bunker off the tee. He didn’t make any pars, either. The closest he came was his bogey on No. 12, his third hole, when he cozied a 30-foot par putt to gimme length.

Ryan missed left, he missed right, he botched shots from the rough and blew chips. He three-putted several times. By the time he approached the iconic par-3 17th hole, the island green, Ryan’s card looked like this: triple, double, bogey, quad, triple, triple, quintuple.

Then, he hit not one, not two, not three, but four straight shots into the water. But he didn’t stop. And, to the gallery’s great delight, his fifth shot found the green at last. He two-putted for an octuple-bogey 11.

“Usually, you aren’t very happy with an 11, but people were rooting me on, so it was fun,” Ryan told the Tour after his round.

Ryan’s final tally for eight holes: a 29-over 61 — 23 shots higher than the next closest Creators ahead of him on the leaderboard and 28 shots behind Horvat’s winning score. If we use Ryan’s first eight holes to extrapolate a potential 18-hole score, we get a number in the 130-140 range. That’s high — but TPC Sawgrass is unique in its difficulty. There’s trouble galore, and water on 17 of 18 holes — a brutal test for most good players, let alone an average one.

Ryan’s round was inspirational in some ways, though. It was proof that, yes, golf is hard. But good on Ryan for publicly trying and showing us just how good the best players really are.

His efforts on 17 were also a showcase for just how meaningful the game’s small triumphs can be. Finding the green after four straight water balls, Tin Cup-style? That’s a feeling like no other.

The Creators will get two more cracks at Tour setups this year, at Philadelphia Cricket Club and East Lake. Here’s hoping Ryan will be back in the lineup.