‘It almost always hurts, but never more than this:’ DJ’s unlucky break at 17

The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass was dug into the ground 121 yards from the tee box on Saturday. It’s the distance where, in 2001, Tiger Woods dropped a 60-foot putt from just off the green. The “better than most” shot.

Dustin Johnson‘s tee shot was too. 

“Shot Tracer shows us it’s on a great line,” analyst Gary Koch said during NBC’s broadcast of the third round of the Players Championship. 

“It was on too good a line.”

It was worse than most.

Too good, too bad. Johnson’s tee shot to the famed island green hit the bottom of the flag stick, ricocheted to the left and trickled into the water. Johnson would drop his iron, watch in disbelief for a few seconds, then pick his club back up. 

“You know, it’s amazing how many times when a full shot hits a flagstick on the fly, it doesn’t help, it hurts,” Koch said on the broadcast. 

“Yeah, it almost always hurts,” analyst Paul Azinger said on the broadcast. “But never more than this.”

Johnson would elect to hit a second tee shot, it ended up 48 feet away and he two-putted for a double-bogey 5. To add insult to penalty stroke, his playing partner, Adam Scott, hit his tee shot to 2 feet — after hitting it to 19 inches during the first round and 20 inches during the second round. 

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

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