Today marks the 45th anniversary of when ground was broken on Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course!

PGA Commissioner Deane Beman broke ground on February 12, 1979, by driving a bulldozer into the dense palmetto underbrush, creating one of the country’s most difficult tests of golf out of a marshy plot of land just south of Jacksonville, FL.

The course design was completely unique and a breakthrough for the time, with hole layouts and mounding created with the spectator in mind—with Pete drawing from concepts from the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Ontario, CA. There were central hubs created where spectators could watch multiple holes at the same time from elevated hills, creating the feel of a golf “stadium”, where the spectator could be closer to the golfing action. Thus, the first Stadium course layout was born.

Aside from the unique stadium concept, Pete designed the course to be challenging for amateurs and pros alike, as it would be a course open to the public. The idea for the iconic Par 3 #17 island green actually came from Pete’s wife, Alice—as she proposed it after they had excavated too much earth for the hole and she recommended filling the excavated hole with water and placing the green as an island towards the back of the new lake!

The Stadium course played so difficult that professional players initially complained about how difficult it was in the first few years of the Players Championship. Ben Crenshaw called it “Star Wars golf. The place was designed by Darth Vader”, and Tom Watson and Lee Trevino were highly critical of the “unfairness” of the course.

Over the years, however, the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course has become a beloved destination for professional and amateur golfers, as well as with spectators (who doesn’t love camping out at #17 and watching players attempt the nerve-wracking tee shot!). The Players Championship is now recognized as the informal ‘5th Major’ in professional golf.

And it all started 45 years ago today!