Golfer 'undershot' opens record at The Players
Buckley made a "miracle" in the first round of The Players 2023 when he was in the second group in the bracket starting from hole 10 on the evening of 9/3 Hanoi time.
This is Buckley's second hole-in-one in professional golf, and the 11th hole-in-one in The Players Championship history at the Stadium. At the 2022 match, the penultimate hole of the field had 423 plays, including 57 shots in the water, and in the PGA Tour last season's summary, it ranked 10th in difficulty in 204 par3 holes.
With a "famous finish", Buckley threw off his hat, then high-fived the people around him and threw away his stick.
After the ace, the 27-year-old American golfer entered the par4 18 hole and finished the birdie with a seven-meter putt from the left edge of the green.
Since The Players settled at the Stadium - in 1982, no one has scored an ace-birdie through the 17-18 hole like Buckley.
When he made this "miracle", he scored round -4. In the first half of the field, Buckley continued to birdie on hole 1 to -5. But from then to the end of the game, he added two bogeys, two double bogeys, bringing the round score down to +1.
When Buckley finished, the top of the table was at -8, belonging to 30-year-old Chad Ramney who was ranked 225 in the world and just one cup after 151 awards on the PGA Tour. And Buckley in this arena has not finished first after 95 tournaments.
The PGA Tour opened The Players Championship in 1974 with the same position as the major quartet. In 1982, the tournament began "permanently" on the Stadium course of the TPC Sawgrass golf complex in Florida, on the same campus as the PGA Tour headquarters.
This place used to be a swamp but became the ultimate golf battleground thanks to the vision of Special Envoy Deane Beman and legendary architect Pete Dye. But for the 17th hole, the oasis green was born according to the idea of the designer's wife - Alice Dye, from the troubles of the beginning.
According to the original design, hole 17 is a simple par3 with the green partially covered by the lake. However, the surrounding geology is full of sand and this is used to make traps throughout the yard. This is a rare occurrence in the swamp.
By the time the yard was nearing completion, the base of hole 17 collapsed, leaving a large depression in the surface while the footing continued to erode inward. "Use partitions to reinforce the foundation and then pour dirt and sand on top?", suggested Alice - Dye's wife and colleague.
