Looking Back on When Goats Ruled TPC Sawgrass

Jay Flemma did a tremendous job profiling TPC Sawgrass and its designer Pete Dye in a piece over at A Walk in the Park.  Flemma provides a tour of the home to the PGA Tour's crown jewel, explaining the genius of the design that has been copied so many times that "target golf" has been given a bad name.

One of the best anecdotes from Flemma's piece and his conversation with Dye himself is not about how his wife Alice inspired the famed island green 17th.  No, it's about how goats once ruled Sawgrass.

The course initially used goats to eat rough and weeds growing around the greens. Unfortunately the animals figured out how to scale the railing around the old pyramid-shaped clubhouse and would gather on the roof, refusing to come down. They were quickly exiled. "Oh yeah, the story of the goats is true" exclaims Dye with a chuckle. They were so economical. They’d just eat all the rough down quick as daylight. There was one of ‘em, a big ol’ male named "Prunes," he butted a few people so they got rid of him."