Ben An went to the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday having taken 30 strokes on the back nine of the course in Round 1 of The Players Championship. About 40 minutes later, he signed for a 47 on that side and an 83 overall. Things, as they say, escalated quickly.
An hit four shots (!!) in the water on No. 17 before finally landing one from the drop zone off to the left-hand side of the hole. He two-putted from there, but carded an 11, the second-highest score ever on that hole during The Players Championship.
Here's what that looked like on paper.
It was somehow even worse on video, if that's possible.
No. 17 strikes again. Ben An records an 11 on the island green.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 11, 2021
That's the second-highest score ever on the 17th in the ShotLink era. pic.twitter.com/1nZ8a6HvY4
Only Bob Tway's 12 in 2005 was worse, and An's 11 is one of just four double-digit scores ever on the 140-yard hole. It actually got worse for An because he hit his tee shot on No. 18 in the water as well and made a 6 there. That's 17 strokes on the last two holes. From 1 over to 11 over in 40 minutes.
An is not the only one struggling with those two holes, though. They have played nearly 1 combined stroke over par in Round 1 and were the two most difficult holes on the golf course. Here's what Justin Thomas (who also hit a ball in the water off the tee at No. 17) said about why this was the case.
"That green is substantially firmer than the rest of them," Thomas said. "They were very consistent over the course except for that hole. Just, it always is a little bit firmer for obvious reasons, but especially up there on top. ...You want to land it up top with the helping breeze, you know, you get it up in the air or a little bit of adrenaline with fans out here now, you can land it pin high and one hop in the water like I did."
Or like An did on two of his four water balls. An did have a great sense of humor about it. When Golf Channel tweeted out the video asking its followers to tag somebody who they know would also make a 11, An retweeted it and tagged ... himself.
