The last time the world's top golfers tackled the tiny 17th hole at Sawgrass there was only one winner - the hole. By a distance.

Hard though it might be to believe, an incredible 54 balls finished in the water on the final day of the Players Championship last year.

Now Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson - both of whom contributed to that total - and all the other stars are back.

Not to get their revenge, just to survive and hopefully go on to collect what is considered the game's unofficial fifth major.

The island green 17th, only 137 yards, has always been controversial, but never has it seen such carnage.

A total of 84 players stood on the tee that day for the third and fourth rounds - there were two rounds in one day because of earlier rain delays - and 37 of them put at least one ball in the lake.

Woods got away lightly by losing only one and he was not in contention. Mickelson was probably not going to win either when he did it twice for a quadruple-bogey seven in the morning and certainly not when he dumped another in later.

But the hole did end the hopes of Zach Johnson, who also did it in both rounds and finished four shots behind Funk in eighth place, and Lee Westwood was seventh when he matched Mickelson's seven before lunch.

Nobody, though, suffered like Bob Tway. In the space of a few minutes he crashed from 10th to 72nd with a tournament-record 12, needing five attempts to find dry land - and then three-putting.

"I didn't think anybody would break my record - 11 is a pretty big number," said previous holder Robert Gamez.

"You're playing great in the tournament and all of a sudden, in one hole, you might as well be finishing last," commented the former US PGA champion. He had bogeyed the hole in the first round and twice found the water for a triple-bogey six in the second, making him 13 over par there and seven under for the other 17.

Mickelson still considers the hole fair, but adds: "It requires an element of luck."

Woods just wishes it was somewhere else on the course rather than so close to the finish. "I don't think a hole like that should decide a tournament - a good shot may not be on land," he commented.

Significantly, none of the 54 balls in the lake belonged to winner Fred Funk or to runners-up Luke Donald, Tom Lehman or Scott Verplank.

And consider this too. Of the current top five in the world only Woods has won the title - just once - and he, Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen are a combined 40 over par for the 17th.

Mind you, they are also 62 over par for the 18th, which has more water all the way down the left. For a dramatic finish in golf, Sawgrass arguably has no rival.