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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – MARCH 12: A general view of the flag on the 16th green during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship 2026 at THE PLAYERS Stadium course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2026 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Players<\/a> is off to a wild start. And by wild, we do mean animalistic.<\/p>\n At least, that was the story on the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass on Thursday. This hole has an interesting history of battling rough waters and feathered foes. But a golf ball stood its ground in Round 1 when a seagull landed on the green and started to challenge it.<\/p>\n The golf ball defends its territory on the 17th green.<\/p>\n Nature is amazing. <\/p>\n Lucky for the competitor who had hit said shot \u2014 his name is cropped out of the footage \u2014 the seagull backed off instead of stealing the ball. He was already five over par at this point and didn\u2019t need any man or bird making his job harder.<\/p>\n History of Seagulls on 17 at The Players<\/p>\n PGA Tour fans who regularly tune in to watch The Players know this particular seagull run-in could have gone much, much worse.<\/p>\n In fact, Thursday marked the 28th anniversary of a seagull\u00a0stealing\u00a0Brad Fabel\u2019s golf ball<\/a> at \u2014 drumroll, please \u2014 the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass. The winged resident at the Ponte Vedra Beach golf course carried the ball over the water and promptly dropped it in.<\/p>\n In 1998, during The Players Championship, Brad Fabel\u2019s ball on the 17th green at TPC Sawgrass was picked up by a seagull, carried into the air, and dropped in the water. He got to replace it without penalty. <\/p>\n Fortunately for Fabel, he was able to replace the ball without being penalized.<\/p>\n This 137-yard par 3 is difficult enough to hit without winged warriors<\/a> getting involved. The notorious \u201cIsland Green\u201d is surrounded by water, except for a small walkway leading to it. According to CBS Sports<\/a>, over 1,000 golf balls have been hit into the water on 17 since 2003.<\/p>\n Weather Marks Wild Start to The Players 2026<\/p>\n Resident fowl haven\u2019t been the only threat in the first round of The Players 2026.<\/p>\n Play was delayed for just under half an hour on Thursday due to expected rain in the area. Action resumed just a little after noon Eastern time, with later tee times being pushed back by only 30 minutes.<\/p>\n Heavy Sports previously wrote that inclement weather<\/a> is expected to hit this weekend\u2019s event. Wind gusts are projected to hit over 20 mph, which could make the Island Green even harder to hit. The forecast also calls for scattered thunderstorms over the weekend, which could further postpone play.<\/p>\n Big Storylines Heading Into The Players 2026<\/p>\n Hopefully, this seagull wasn\u2019t seeking fame, because there are bigger headlines at play heading into this tournament.<\/p>\n Pebble Beach Pro-Am winner Collin Morikawa was forced to withdraw<\/a> from The Players just after he started the first round.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt fine in warm-up. Like nothing\u2019s been any signs of back problems. And teed it up on 11, and took one practice swing, and I just knew it was gone,\u201d Morikawa said, via Golfweek.<\/a> \u201cI just had the feeling before when it\u2019s happened. And I just, I can\u2019t swing through it. Trust me, I would play if I could. It\u2019s just the worst thing in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking of back issues, Rory McIlroy is scheduled to tee off later in the day. The defending Players champion bowed out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational just before the third round due to muscle spasms in his back. McIlroy took practice swings at TPC Sawgrass on Wednesday, but did not get a full practice round in.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tChelena Goldman<\/a> Chelena is a San Francisco-based sports writer and reporter covering multiple sports for heavy.com. The former NHL.com and NBC Sports writer spent 11 years covering the San Jose Sharks, while also covering sporting events locally and internationally. Her other major credits include CBS Sports and Athlon. More about Chelena Goldman<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Golf\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – MARCH 12: A general view of the flag on the 16th green…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-532007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}