Bailey Chamblee, the wife of former PGA Tour player and Golf Channel/NBC analyst Brandel Chamblee, had a magic moment Sunday at TPC Sawgrass.
The two were playing a round at the Stadium Course and Bailey Chamblee hit her tee shot into the water at the par-3 17th hole.
Nothing unusual there. According to estimates, around 10,000 balls per year are retrieved from the water around the Island Green.
But Bailey, a host on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive and a former member of the Old Dominion women’s golf team, did the next best thing and it was captured on video and posted on Twitter by her husband.
After her ball hit the water she laughed briefly then had a ball tossed to her by a member of their group, re-teed and then hit another shot within 12 seconds.
This time the ball went in the hole, as she bored her shot through a fierce wind that was blowing from left-to-right.
“You did not just do that!” someone in their group exclaimed twice.
As I’ve tried to tell @mcginleygolf a million times on #LiveFrom this is a great hole.
Bails making a Freddy Couples @fredcouplesgolf on 17 at @TPCSawgrass pic.twitter.com/T2lri0H29w
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) April 30, 2023
Bailey Chamblee grabbed her head with both hands and walked a few steps away. She then got hugs from two of the people in their group and her husband then picked her up and spun her around several times.
“As I’ve tried to tell [Golf Channel co-worker Paul McGinley] a million times on #LiveFrom, this is a great hole,” Chamblee said on the Twitter post. “Bails making a Freddy Couples on 17.”
That reference is to the famous shot two-time Players champion Fred Couples made in 1999 when he went in the water at No. 17, re-teed, then slam-dunked his third shot in the hole.
And Chamblee was poking fun at himself in the tweet. He has been a frequent critic of 17th hole and once said that its capricious nature hurts The Players Championship’s status of being considered a major.
“I think it comes too late in the round,” Chamblee said in a 2013 conference call before The Players. “I think it has the potential to play too much of a role for the quality of the hole. It’s 130 yards and . . . sometimes it’s an absolute nothing short iron when the wind is not blowing. But when the wind is blowing, there is too much luck involved in the shot and too much of the penalty for a miss.
“I really do think this tournament should be a major,” Chamblee continued. “I absolutely think this tournament should be a major. I think one of the things that keeps it from really getting its due is the 17th hole.”
