It's the accessibility that makes the Stadium Course special

Deane Beman was the first Hall-of-Famer to swat a ball at what was to become the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, just south of Jacksonville. On February 12th, 1978, the then-PGA Tour commissioner hit a ceremonial drive into 415 acres of wooded wetlands and swamps, filled with creatures both snuffling and slithering. It was part ceremonial, part celebratory, as the Tour had just purchased the morass for a single dollar bill.
In the ensuing decades, practically every contemporary Hall-of-Fame member and modern golf star have followed Beman onto the property. This puts the Stadium Course on an extremely short list of public access facilities, including the Old Course at St. Andrews and Pebble Beach, which have hosted virtually every great golfer of the times. It’s also what makes The Players Championship so appealing—every year the very best in the game duke it out for a million-plus bucks. And you and your golf buddies can do the very same thing at the same place, albeit for a sawbuck, maybe a c-note.