Chad Ramey’s lead evaporates on disastrous 17th at The Players Championship
Chad Ramey was enjoying a two-shot lead in The Players Championship when he stepped onto one of the most intimidating tee boxes in professional golf on Friday afternoon at TPC Sawgrass. But by the time he reached the green, Ramey had already ensured he’d lose that lead.
Ramey hit two balls in the water at the par-3 17th hole before carding a quadruple-bogey ‘7’, which dropped him from 9-under to 5-under, good at the time for just a share of fifth and two shots back.
Ramey’s first tee shot, from 145 yards out, was too aggressive to the back-left pin, hitting the top shelf and bounding off the island green. And then from the drop zone, some 90 yards away, Ramey had too much on his third shot, and that, too, bounced through the green and into the water. He finally found land with his fifth, hitting it to 20 feet, from where he’d two-putt for his quad. A day earlier, Ramey had birdied No. 17.
Ramey, who had reached 10-under through three holes on Friday, later sank a 30-foot par save on No. 18 to card a 3-over 39 and turn at 5-under overall, but his lead was gone. The disaster on No. 17, which had been playing as the toughest hole on the course up to that point, had taken it away.
For Ramey, the challenge now is to regroup and refocus for the weekend. He’ll need to draw on his experience from the first two rounds, when he was able to play with confidence and poise, to have any chance of contending on the weekend. If he can do that and put the disaster on No. 17 behind him, he may just find himself back atop the leaderboard.
