Alex Smalley found the water in the iconic 17 Sawgrass hole, but only after his ball made a comic tour around the edge of the green of the island.
Smalley was playing with Rory Mcilroy in the penultimate group of the players championship, which reached its climax on Sunday night.
The 17th par-three is one of the most emblematic and rashing holes of golf. Go to players hitting around 140 yards on a lake towards a green surrounded by water.
Thirty balls were lost in the lake during the first three rounds this week and Smalley was one of the final victims of this year's players championship.
The world no 133 saw its shot landed in the Green before the ball bouncing sinisterly into the water.
Finally, he settled in the thin wedge of the wood cover that separates the green from the lake. For more than 10 seconds, the ball rolled along the edge of the island before finally falling into the water.
Golf star Alex Smalley put his ball in the water in iconic 17 in TPC Sawgrass
Smalley's Ball made a comic tour around the edge of the green before falling into the water
It was a cruel and expensive ending for Smalley, who made a double Bogey Five in 17. Another Bogey followed at 18 when he ended up in five low.
It was not the first moment of the weekend comedy. During the third round of Saturday, Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia were forced to take a fall in the Sawgrass management field.
The two night leaders had spent almost 20 minutes in the fifth hole, looking for their balls, walking on the bushes and in contact with the officials, before they finally hit their approaches to the Green.
The final match had sent their units to the trees and both had chosen to take a non -playable fall.
Lee and Bhatia went to almost 70 yards farther from the hole, on the other side of the tree line, to shoot the Green.