Brendon Todd stepped to TPC Sawgrass’ 17th tee in fine position. He’d played the first 16 holes of his final round of the 2021 Players Championship in three under par and had crept up to T-24. He was inching closer to a very solid payday in golf’s richest event. And then disaster struck.
And we do mean disaster. Like, the worst thing that can ever happen to a golfer, on one of the more famous holes in the sport.
“It looked like it might catch that little island over there—I was like maybe I’ll get to play from the flower bed and be the first one to do that. But sure enough it flew right past, splashed and all I could do was laugh. Bad shots happen. I think that’s my first shank in PGA Tour history.”
A week after his eventual T-35 finish, Todd hopped on a Trackman to see if he might be able to figure out what caused it.
“Turns out I was swinging in-to-out like eight to 10 degrees on a pitching wedge, which is a lot.”
We somehow convinced Todd to rewatch the crime scene ahead of this year’s Players Championship. The three-time PGA Tour winner handled it like a champ—just like he handled the shank itself. After a three putt and a triple-bogey 6, he birdied the difficult 18th.
