50 Balls Voted Off the Island

Tiger Woods failed to make a birdie in his opening-round 75 at The Players Championship. That's always a surprise.

What's never a surprise is when balls fail to find the island green at TPC Sawgrass' No. 17. And a record 50 balls went into the drink on Thursday. That's almost one-third of players failing to hit the 17th green.

Four players - Davis Love III, Ben Curtis, Kent Jones and Trevor Immelman - put two balls into the water, also missing the green from the drop area. Each made a 7 on the hole.

There was one group - Jose Coceres, Hunter Mahan and Richard S. Johnson - whose members each hit into the water.

For what it's worth, TPC Sawgrass gets around 40,000 rounds of play each year, and approximately 120,000 balls are year are hit into the water around No. 17. That's three balls per person!