Best Players Championships, Nos. 10-1: Black Saturday, Better than Most and Rickie's wild ride

The Times-Union continues its rankings of the best Players Championships in history.

Today: The rankings finish with the top-10 tournaments, including the Stadium Course Era beginning, the first hometown champion and the wildest Players finish ever.

No. 10, 1998: A tale of two Leonards

There has been no shortage of drama at the 17th hole’s Island Green at the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

It didn’t get much more human that the 1998 tournament.

After making a sprint up the leaderboard with nine birdies over his first 16 holes, Nease graduate Len Mattiace stood on the 17th tee, one shot behind Justin Leonard, who was playing No. 16. With numerous friends and family in the gallery — including his terminally ill mother Joyce being pushed in a wheelchair by his father Lou — Mattiace hit his tee shot over the flag and into the water.

Ranking The Players

Nos. 20-11:May Era begins and yes, Hal, it was the right club

Nos. 30-21: Young pros begin to assert themselves on big stage

Nos. 39-31:Nos. 39-31: Jack Nicklaus wins twice in three years, at two sites

Nos. 48-40:Nos. 48-40: Blowout victories, drama-free golf

After dropping, he hit his third shot into the small bunker. Mattiace hit his fourth shot into the water again, dropped back in the bunker, finally reached the green and two-putted for an 8.

Leonard then finished off a 67 and beat Tom Lehman and Glen Day by two shots. Mattiace tied for fifth, four shots back, which means a par on No. 17 would have gotten him into a playoff with Leonard.

No. 9, 1987: A costly dip at 17

It was one of the most bizarre incidents in Players' history and it had nothing to do with a player hitting a shot.

Jeff Sluman was on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff with Sandy Lyle and about to pull the trigger on a 5-foot birdie putt attempt at No. 17. Just as he got over the ball, Hal Valdes, an FSU cheerleader, jumped into the pond near the green, right in front of CBS analyst Steve Melnyk. Sluman backed off and after security dragged Valdes away, he missed the putt.

Lyle, of Scotland, then won the playoff with an 8-foot par putt on the 18th hole to become the first international winner of The Players. He and Sluman both shot 14-under in regulation as both overtook 54-hole co-leaders Mark O’Meara and Scott Simpson.

Lyle forged his tie in regulation by chipping in for a birdie at No. 15 and making a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole of regulation.

No. 8, 1982: Pate closes strong

The first Players Championship at the Stadium Course was, to say the least, controversial.

Pete Dye’s design was unlike anything anyone had ever seen in professional golf. The undulating hills that produced commissioner Deane Beman’s vision of “Stadium Golf,” small, hard greens, pot bunkers, love grass, railroad ties and mostly, the Island Green at No. 17, provided for marvelous TV, ease of movement for spectators on-site and a bunch of infuriated players.

“They wanted to kill Pete and fire Deane,” Jerry Pate said later.

But Pate wasn’t a conventional player and had the imagination to take on the quirks of Dye’s design. He rallied from a tie for 22nd through 36 holes with weekend rounds of 70-67 and won at 8-under, with birdies on the final two holes for his two-shot margin.

And after he made his final birdie, dropping his orange Wilson ball in the hole, he grabbed Dye and Beman, threw them into the lake, and then jumped in himself — as he predicted to a CBS camera when walking up the 18th fairway.

Just one more wild scene during a wild week.

No. 7, 1988: Jacksonville’s champion

Mark McCumber was Duval County through and through. He grew up playing golf at Hyde Park, went to Riverside High and worked in his family's landscaping company while he took eight attempts to get his PGA Tour card through the qualifying tournament.

By the 1988 Players, McCumber had won five times on the PGA Tour. However, he had a checkered history in The Players, missing the cut or being disqualified five times in his first eight starts. He tied for 12th in 1987.

That gave him the confidence he needed for 1988. McCumber shot into the lead with a 65 that included an eagle from 65 yards out at the par-5 ninth hole to finish the day, weathered a 72 in the second round and posted a 67 in the third round in which he had to play the last 14 holes on Sunday because of storms on Saturday.

McCumber had a quick lunch at his Marsh Landing home, then returned to the course with a two-shot lead. He held it all day with a closing 69 and set the scoring record at 15-under, a four-shot victory over Mike Reid. It was the first Players victory by a pro with First Coast ties.

No. 6, 1996: Coupling the victories

It had been a wet spring and an even wetter week as rain plagued the 1996 Players every day. Predictably, scoring was low and 66 players eventually broke par for 72 holes.

For most of the week, the story was Jacksonville native David Duval, who had been on the verge of winning a handful of times in his rookie season of 1995 and into 1996. Journeyman Tommy Tolles, who had never won on the PGA Tour, held the 54-hole lead by two shots over Duval, while Fred Couples was tied for fifth, four back.

Tolles shot 72 and Duval 71 in the final round, certainly nothing disgraceful. But on a day in which 21 players shot in the 60s, they lost ground — especially to Couples, who set the Sunday scoring record with a 64 that included a 25-foot eagle putt at No. 16 and a 15-footer for birdie at No. 17. Couples became the first player since Nicklaus to win the tournament twice and the first on the Stadium Course.

No. 5, 2003: Off the pine straw to win

It seemed Padraig Harrington’s week. The native of Ireland opened with a 67 for the first-round co-lead, had a 68 for a two-shot lead through 36 holes and then shot 70 to share the 54-hole lead with Jay Haas.

But on a chilly, windy Sunday, when the temperature never climbed out of the mid-50s, Davis Love III produced one of the best final rounds of a Hall of Fame career when he tied Couples’ record with a closing 64 to romp to a six-shot victory over Haas and Harrington at 17-under.

Love had a run of five birdies in a row to take control of the tournament. His signature shot was at the par-5 16th, after his drive found a patch of pine straw down the left side. Love hit a 6-iron to within 10 feet, and dropped the eagle putt.

Love was paired with Couples, who called it “the best round I’ve ever seen played.”

No. 4, 1979: Surviving Black Saturday

It was perhaps the most extraordinary weekend in the history of The Players, for all the wrong reasons.

A cold front that brought winds of 25 mph, with gusts over 40 mph, made the 71 players who made the cut look like so many weekend hackers. Lanny Wadkins had the 36-hole lead after rounds of 67-68 and summoned all of his skills to post 76-72 on the weekend as the wind swept out of the Atlantic Ocean and sent scores soaring.

Wadkins still won by five shots. Only one player broke par in the third round, Jack Renner with a 71. Only one player broke par in the final round, Tom Watson with a 71. Fourteen players failed to break 80 in the third round, 25 posted “snowmen” in the fourth round and Bob Murphy set a Players record that still stands for the highest 18-hole score, with a 92.

The carnage was so bad legend has it that Jim Colbert, who finished early on Saturday, insisted that players who came in the locker room sit in a barber chair (that is now in the Champions' locker room at the TPC Sawgrass) and report their scores. He compiled a worst-ball score for the field which was rumored to be north of 200,

Colbert later said he found at least one double-digit score on each hole.

“It wasn’t hard,” he said.

No. 3, 2002: Perks’ Place

It’s hard to tell what was more stunning — a relative unknown winning The Players in his first appearance, the way he did it or the way he quickly disappeared from the PGA Tour.

Craig Perks, a long-hitting, friendly New Zealander, shot 68 in the second round to get into contention and with a third-round 69, stood one shot behind 54-hole leader Carl Paulson — who was making his second Players start.

No one seemed to want to take charge in the final round. Stephen Ames posted an early 67 for the clubhouse lead at 6-under and Rocco Mediate, Sergio Garcia, Billy Andrade and Scott Hoch had their chances. Paulson faded with a 77 and Perks was 3-over for the day until he got to No. 16.

He fired his first salvo with a chip-in eagle at the par-5 to grab a one-shot lead. Perks hit the green at No. 17 and dropped a 25-foot birdie putt for a two-shot lead.

Perks missed the fairway at No 18, then hit his third shot over the green. But he conjured up one more bit of magic, chipping in for par at the last to win at 8-under.

With a Players title behind him and a five-year exemption, Perks made a series of swing changes designed to hit more fairways and greens. But he admitted later he shouldn’t have changed a thing and he eventually lost his PGA Tour card. He now teaches in Broussard, La., and does announcing work on Golf Channel.

No. 2, 2001: Better than Most

The putt seemed impossible — on an upper shelf at the 17th hole Island Green, 60 feet from the hole, with three breaks.

But the putter was being held by Tiger Woods, which is all anyone needed to know.

Woods began the third round of the 2001 Players six shots behind Jerry Kelly. He sprinted up the leaderboard with five birdies and an eagle at No. 11, and stood on the 17th tee three shots back.

Woods misjudged the tee shot and sailed it too far, to the back of the green. But after scanning the line and stalking the green, he settled over the ball and gave it a gentle tap.

NBC on-course reporter Gary Koch, who had seen several players ram the same putt past the hole, started repeating, “this is better than most … better than most.”

Analyst Johnny Miller then said, “how about in?”

Koch gave it a final “better than most!” as the ball slammed into the hole. Woods gave his customary fist pumps and the thousands of fans surrounding No. 17 exploded.

“There has been nothing, as far being a sheer, scintillating moment [in The Players], like that putt,” NBC lead golf announcer Dan Hicks said.

Woods finished with a 66 in the final round, two shots behind Kelly, then forged ahead with a 67 in the final round — with the last seven holes coming on Monday because of a thunderstorm on Sunday. His final score of 14-under was one ahead of Vijay Singh.

No. 1, 2015: Rickie owns the Island Green

Rickie Fowler made three swings at No. 17 during the final round of the 2015 Players, one in regulation and two within four playoff holes.

Each tee shot landed closer than the prior one. The last, coming down 4 feet from the hole, set up a birdie that beat Kevin Kisner in sudden death, after the two had survived a three-hole playoff.

“Rickie Fowler owns the Island Green,” Hicks said when Fowler made the last putt to win his biggest tournament to date and cap the most frenzied Sunday in tournament history.

Fowler shot 67, Kisner 69 and Sergio Garcia 68 to finish regulation tied at 12-under. Fowler came from behind with a birdie at No. 15, an eagle at No. 16 and birdies at Nos. 17 and 18.

There was a four-way tie for the lead at one point — none of them the trio that eventually reached the playoff. When the final twosome of Chris Kirk and Bill Haas made the turn, 10 players were tied or within three shots of the lead.

When that twosome was on the 18th tee, five players still had a chance to win or go into a playoff.

NBC’s anchor Josh Elliott had the right words for the final round: “Glorious madness.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Best Players Championships, No. 10-1: Rickie's triumph and 'better than most'