As if playing at TPC Sawgrass wasn’t hard enough, the tournament organisers and land owners have made life more difficult with the addition of the overhanging tree on the sixth hole.
The tree very much used to be a feature of the course before being removed in 2014.
However, for the 2025 tournament, a brand new overhanging oak tree has been installed right in front of the sixth tee box, meaning a daunting effort from the tee for even the best in the world.
In round one, we saw most players go for a low bullet shot with either a wood or even driver, as the PGA’s best were force to get creative.
Of course, two men who needed to navigate the tough tee shot were Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy.
And it’s safe to say that McIlroy was pretty taken aback by the visual as he witnessed it for the first time.
Rory McIlroy’s first impressions of the new sixth tee box at TPC Sawgrass
McIlroy and Lowry are two very close friends on the PGA Tour and it was quite fitting they went out to see the new addition together.
And after first seeing it, it’s safe to say both McIlroy and Lowry were a bit shocked.
“Oh my god,” McIlroy said on arriving at the tee box.
With Lowry then saying it ‘really makes you hit the shot’ McIlroy replied:
“It does yeah. Well, it’s just good. It forces you to hit the shot because you’ve got to get the flight right.”
However, another player who didn’t seem impressed was Matt Fitzpatrick, with the former US Open winner calling it the ‘dumbest tree he’s ever seen’ and suggesting its removal would be much better.
How the sixth hole played in round one of The Players 2025
While the tee shot might look daunting to the everyday golfer, and it is a challenge for the pros as well, it isn’t quite as tough as it looks on the eye.
As can be seen in the practice footage, most players simply hit a low bullet under the branch and move on.
In terms of the scoring on the sixth in round one, the players mentioned above navigated it fairly comfortably.
McIlroy took a par after after pinging three wood just shy of 300 yards. Lowry and Fitzpatrick also made pars, while two of the surprise joint leaders, JJ Spaun and Camilo Villegas, managed to come away with a birdie.
Clearly, par is a happy score here for most players and if McIlroy and more can go through the weekend making pars at the sixth, they’ll be happy enough.
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