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Remembering the famous Fred Couples hole-in-three at the Players Championship

By T.J. Auclair
Published on
Remembering the famous Fred Couples hole-in-three at the Players Championship

 
In the first round of the 1999 Players Championship, fan favorite Fred Couples stepped to the tee on the world-famous, par-3, island-green 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass.
 
Like many before him — and countless thousands since then — Couples splashed his tee shot into the water. Nothing special, unique, or crazy there.
 
 
But what happened next was amazing... arguably even more amazing than when Couples aced the same hole in 1997.
 
Couples re-teed and, playing his third shot, proceeded to knock that shot into the hole, on the fly, for the most unlikely of pars.
 
"I don't really know how hard I was trying on my third shot," Couples, a two-time Players Champion, admitted years later (he shot a 77 in that opening round, by the way). "If I don't make that shot, I think I shoot 80, 81 and probably miss the cut. Three days later, I was in fourth place."
 
Here's the video of that shot:
 
 
And how about the reaction from Couples? Cool as cool gets, just as you'd expect.