Has any hole in golf generated more discussion than Sawgrass’ par 3 17th? That island green seems to both simultaneously fascinate and horrify. I used to think that the Road Hole was the most famous, but attention turns to the Old Course only once every couple of years when the Open Championship makes its way back.

I think it would be interesting to compile a list of the most famous holes in golf. Not the best. Just the most famous.

I’d start with Sawgrass 17. Then perhaps the Road Hole, Augusta 12, Augusta 13 and the 7th at Pebble Beach.

What would be on your list?

Have they all given up? Like Avis (remember those commercials), Adam Scott says he’s playing for number two.

Adam Scott believes golf’s world No.2 ranking is within his grasp in the next year if he keeps playing at the level he is capable.

“Sure, I think I’m on the right track,” said Scott at the Players Championship where he’s part of a 15-strong Australian contingent at the Sawgrass TPC.

“I was No.10 in the world two weeks ago, so it’s pretty volatile,” said Scott, who is not quite so sanguine about the possibility of overtaking Woods any time soon.

“No.1 is not in my grasp in the next year, no.”

At least he qualified it with an “in the next year.”

I have a lot of sympathy for these guys. It must be a terrible thing to realize that you live in the era of Tiger Woods and that barring accident, you are not going to be number one.

Ever.

Anthony Kim is the latest up-and-comer to be offered as the next challenger to Tiger. This time, it’s Ron Sirak mixing the cool aid.

Who are the leading candidates to mount such a challenge? Well, start with the defending champion at the Players, Phil Mickelson. Lefty, Ogilvy and Anthony Kim—last week’s winner at the Wachovia Championship—are the only winners this year on tour, other than Woods, who also have a runner-up finish on their dance card. And Kid Kim, the brash 22-year-old whose game is catching up to his attitude, is the only tour player with a trifecta this year, finishing first, second and third.

Mickelson and Ogilvy have won major championships, and they have won with Woods in the field. Kim has neither of those distinctions, yet somehow he has the feel of being the member of that trio who just might be up to the task of taking on Tiger. If nothing else, because he is young and in just his second full season on tour, he has accumulated less emotional scar tissue courtesy of Woods than those guys who have been on the receiving end of his greatness for the past dozen years.

Kid Kim is coming on. After missing three cuts in four starts beginning at the Northern Trust Open, Kim has finished second, T-19 and first—all at events in which Woods did not play. But the point is this: Kim is using the time Tiger is on the sidelines to build some momentum and acquire added confidence. That’s exactly what some other guys need to be doing.

I’d love to see someone step up and be the Palmer, Player, Trevino, Miller, Watson or Strange to Tiger’s Nicklaus. But I’ve despaired of it happening. There’s a sort of Alexander The Great quality to all of this ... Alexander, who at the age of 32 wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. Tiger is that age now; does he wonder where his Watson is?

The PGA Site has a list of 17 Things To Know About Sawgrass #17. What’s most interesting to me is that the design was almost accidental:

1. The original design of the green did not envision an island setting. It was intended as a simple par three that bordered on water. But alongside the hole was a vein of pure sand that was valued for sand capping the fairways. They just kept digging until the vein was depleted, thus forming the crater .The original design of the hole then could not be attained. A suggestion was then made to make it an “island green” almost completely surrounded by water. Architect Pete Dye acquiesced. And one of golf’s most famous (or infamous) holes was born.

2. The suggestion to make it an island green was made by Alice Day, Pete Dye’s wife.

You can read more of them here.

It’s a wide open field with Tiger out of this year’s Players Championship.

The oddsmakers at Bodoglife have Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott as the favorites, at 12/1. Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh round out the top five at 20/1.

For those won’t don’t know about betting odds, you read a betting line by looking at the second number first.  So a 12/1 reads that you’ll pay 1 to win 12. The second number is how much you bet, the first how much you win.

Read the rest of the post to see the complete odds for the Players Championship, provided courtesy of Bodog.Com, the world’s largest online sports betting destination.