Adam Sandler goes from bad hockey player to good golfer in the Happy Gilmore thread. But there’s worse, a terrible golfer on the PGA’s toughest course, TPC Sawgrass.
• Also read: Players Championship: The 17th hole is a spectacular and electrifying course
It was last weekend’s Players Championship at the famous Florida golf course that inspired us to revisit one of the most memorable rounds of the legendary course.
In 1986, Golf Digest magazine, or rather publisher Peter Andrews, had a brilliant idea. He offers to find the worst golfers in the United States to confront at TPC Sawgrass.
“We said we’d do it. But we wanted to find the worst golfers who are addicted, not just someone who plays every now and then. We looked for players who play at least 25 rounds a year,” Bob Carney told The Golf Channel in 2011.
A disaster
Four players find themselves on the field in a setting as formal as if they were professionals.
“It was a classic day for such bad players. Talking to them before the first tee I realized we were dealing with serious players, even if they weren’t very good,” recalled Deane Beman, who was PGA commissioner from 1974 to 1994.
Among the four golfers is Angelo Spagnolo, a 31-year-old grocery store executive from the Pittsburgh area.
With his shortened swing and clumsy footwork, every hole is an adventure for him. After 16 holes he has already collected 106 strokes over par for the course.
It has to be said that the round of four offers stunning numbers. Neither of them managed to complete a hole on par. They also came up with 124 penalty strokes.
hell
Those familiar with TPC Sawgrass know what’s coming. The 17th hole. It is a par 3 where players face a peninsula about 135 yards from the tee.
This is where hell really begins for Angelo Spagnolo. 25 years later he tells the Golf Channel about his experiences.
“When I came up on the tee and looked down at the water separating me from the hole, it looked like the English Channel to me.”
He takes off for the first time. His ball flies a few meters and falls into the water. His second shot landed to the left, facing the hole but still on the other side of the water, near a Japanese cameraman. The surface is pebbly and contains shells.
He sends his ball further into the water. His youngest son boos him and the organization goes through his shopping cart to suggest that he walk around the hole with small punches to get onto the path leading to the island, which he refuses.
After more than half an hour of relentlessness, he finally decides to circumnavigate the body of water to reach the bridge that leads to the green, not without sending a baseball ball off the path into the water. He then needs three shots to squeeze his ball into the cup.
Spagnolo finishes the 17th hole with an astronomical 66 and finishes his round with a total of 257.
Repetition
Fast forward to 2011. The Golf Channel decides to contact Spagnolo to offer him a chance to try his luck on the 17th hole again.
“I want to erase 25 years of frustration,” says Spagnolo with a grin.
His swing isn’t better, he’s got a few extra pounds, but he still has that genuine love of golf and a good nature that honors him.
In 1988, Spagnolo hit the green 17 times, but his flat shots ended in a shot in the water. He also had 63 shots to reach the green.
In 2011, his first two shots landed in the water and the third landed behind the hole. From there, it would eventually take him 30 more shots to reach the green and three putts to finish on 44 overall.
After 25 years, he will cut his historic record by 22 shots.
Comparison with the professionals
If he ever tries his luck again, Spagnolo will have to play the 17th hole thirty shots down to keep up with the worst pro players.
Robert Gomez in 1990 and Bob Tway in 2005 tied with a score of 12.
And if we look at what happened this year, the 17th wasn’t as gravedigging as usual. According to statistics from last weekend’s Players Championship, five more holes caused more problems for the players.
There, 45 bogeys and 29 double bogeys were recorded. 58 balls landed in the water and players averaged a 3.13 on this par 3.
On the plus side, there were 79 birdies and three holes-in-one, just like the Players’ Championships played at Sawgrass between 2000 and 2016.
Angelo Spagnolo certainly does not belong to the elite, but he has achieved one thing in this place that no other professional can ever achieve. In 1986, Commissioner Beman jokingly renamed the bridge at the 17th hole Spagnolo’s Alley, a name that still stands today. In doing so, he left his mark on the legend in more ways than one.