17th hole not as menacing: Rickie Fowler birdies it three times on Sunday

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The beautiful-but-menacing island green at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass wasn't as malicious in this year's Players Championship as it has been in the past.

In fact, the 137-yard hole was Rickie Fowler's best friend.

Fowler birdied the hole five times this week — including three times on Sunday — as he won the PGA Tour's flagship event. Fowler made birdie in regulation and then twice made birdie in a playoff to beat Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia for the title.

"The hole was good to me this week," Fowler said.

Others, however, were still bit.

Brooks Koepka had made two consecutive birdies heading to the hole in Thursday's first round and then found the water twice and made a quadruple-bogey 7. He missed the cut by one shot. Robert Allenby had played 44 consecutive rounds without dunking a ball into the water heading into Saturday's third round. Then he found the water with his tee shot and then hit another ball into the water after taking a drop. He made a triple-bogey 6 and fell off the edge of contention.

Ryo Ishikawa played in his first Players this week. He said everything at TPC Sawgrass is on a grand scale. Except one thing.

"The first impression was everything is huge. The driving range is huge and the chipping greens are bigger than I thought, but the 17th green was smaller than I thought, so that's a tough hole," said Ishikawa, who made four pars.

But with winds down on the weekend, fewer balls found the water.

Only three went into the drink on Saturday, just five on Sunday. In all, 45 balls found a watery grave — well below the record 93 in 2007.

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