TPC Sawgrass was the first Tournament Players Club, a course designed not just for players but for spectators. Pete and Alice Dye borrowed a concept from other sports: the raised mounds of grass lining each fairway serve as natural grandstands, giving 36,000 fans sightlines that traditional courses could never offer. The Stadium Course opened in the autumn of 1980 after heavy rains pushed its debut back a full year. Paul and Jerome Fletcher had donated the land to the PGA Tour for one dollar, a check still proudly displayed in the clubhouse. The course quickly became the permanent home of The Players Championship, one of the PGA Tour's signature events, and Sawgrass became the Tour's headquarters. A second course, Dye's Valley Course, later hosted the Web.com Tour Championship from 2013 to 2015.

The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass is one of the most recognizable features in all of golf, yet it exists because of a construction mistake. The original design called for a simple par-3 green partially surrounded by a lake. But the soil around the 17th happened to be sand, a precious commodity on the otherwise swampy property, and by the time the course neared completion, workers had excavated all of it, leaving behind a gaping crater filled with water. Alice Dye suggested turning the green into an island, recalling a similar design at another course. Pete Dye was skeptical but agreed. The result is a green almost entirely encircled by water, with only a narrow walkway connecting it to solid ground. Trees surrounding the hole create unpredictable wind swirls that make club selection agonizing. Golf Channel devotes eleven cameras to covering it during tournaments.

The Island Green has generated legends. During the gusty opening round in May 2007, a single-round record of fifty balls found the water, smashing the previous mark of 45 set in 2000. But the most famous incident belongs to Brad Fabel at the 1998 Players Championship. His tee shot landed safely on the green, and he must have exhaled with relief. Then a seagull landed, grabbed his ball, struggled with its round prize, and finally managed to carry it into the air before dropping it into the water. Under the Rules of Golf, a bird counts as an outside agency, so Fabel was allowed to replace his ball. A TV commentator quipped that the 17th now had yet another hazard. In 2019, Venezuelan golfer Jhonattan Vegas sank the longest putt in the hole's history, a distance of 69 feet, 7 inches.

TPC Sawgrass has served as a proving ground for golf's biggest names. In August 1994, an 18-year-old Tiger Woods defeated Trip Kuehne in the finals of the U.S. Amateur on this course, 2 up, the first of his three consecutive Amateur victories. During the week of Super Bowl XXXIX in nearby Jacksonville in February 2005, Fox Sports organized a closest-to-the-pin contest on the Island Green pitting athletes from across its sports portfolio against each other. NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett beat NFL quarterback Trent Green and MLB pitcher John Smoltz in the final, the only contestant to land on the green. From its opening-day hostility to its current status as one of golf's most celebrated venues, TPC Sawgrass has never stopped producing stories.