Beau Hossler brings up unwanted milestone at The PLAYERS

It had to be somebody. Unfortunately for Beau Hossler, it was him.

The Californian suffered the ignominy of hitting the 1,000th ball in the water on the 17th at TPC Sawgrass in PLAYERS Championship history.

Hossler, 28, rinsed his tee shot during the second round to bring up the milestone.

The hole and its famous island green – yes, we know it’s not technically an island – have been the undoing of countless big names over the years.

According to the PGA Tour, it claimed ten victims in the first round but one of those won’t count after Tom Kim withdrew from the championship with a fever.

Adam Hadwin was one of those who found the water on Thursday, breaking his streak of 28 consecutive safe landings.

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One of the most famous holes in golf, the 17th at Sawgrass was designed by complete accident.

The original plan for the hole was for the lake to only partially surround the green, but as a result of construction creating a large crater, an island green was suggested.

The idea came from course designer Pete Dye’s wife, Alice. Dye was sceptical about the idea at first but went ahead with it and thus one of the game’s iconic holes was born.

Little-known tour pro Brad Fabel will be forever associated with the 17th.

During the 1999 Players Championship, a seagull picked up his ball that had landed on the green. After a few failed attempts at flying off with it, the seagull eventually dumped Fabel’s ball into the water.

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Fortunately, under Rule 18-1 of the Rules of Golf, he was permitted to replace his ball at the spot where it had initially landed.

Fabel was also the first player to record a hole-in-one there during the 1986 PLAYERS Championship. There have been a total of 14 aces there in the history of the event, including three in 2023.

It is reckoned that the hole claims as many as 120,000 balls every single year.

If Beau Hossler’s name sounds familiar, meantime, that’s probably because he led the US Open during the second round in 2012 when he was just 17-years-old.

He turned pro in 2016 but is still searching for his first PGA Tour title.