How much is a beer at TPC Sawgrass?

The weather has been nothing short of sublime at The 50th Players Championship.

The same cannot be said for recent iterations of the PGA Tour’s flagship event that have been marred by poor weather, none more so than when Cameron Smith won on Monday in 2022 due to insistent weather issues.

So what better way to enjoy the scorching sun in Ponte Vedra than with a beverage in your hand, a beverage similar to the ones I’ve previously rambled about at events in the United Kingdom?

If you venture to a refreshment stand at TPC Sawgrass, a 16oz canister of Michelob Ultra will set you back $15. You’ll have to dig deep into your cash reserves to supply a round for your pals if you’ve arrived at The Players en masse.

I surveyed the beer tents at The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool last year where a pint of lager was £7.50. Google tells me that this is the equivalent of $9 and 55 cents which might be an easier price to swallow if Michelob Ultra served drinks in pint-sized portions.

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TPC Sawgrass drink prices: Too much or acceptable?

Credit where it’s due though, as they say. For those who don’t like alcohol or don’t want a headache in the Southern sun, you’re only asked $5 for a Coke. Still a little on the extortionate end perhaps, but it is a third of the beer price which is a perspective I believe to make this pricetag acceptable.

Brisket has been the order of the day since I arrived in Jacksonville. It’s dominated my dinner plates and my evening meals and it’s available to all on the ground at PGA Tour HQ if you want to pay $15 for a sandwich of it.

That means you could be paying $30 for lunch. We’re approaching the expense of a Premier League football match here, aren’t we? Perhaps even more, but it’s The Players. Let’s keep it light.

Your midday meal can be made cheaper if you opt for a bottle of Chardonnay for $11 and a plate of nachos for $10. Who doesn’t love nachos?

An extremely positive thing about The Players and its refreshment options is it seems easy enough to grab a beer or a sandwich. The queues seemed manageable and the spectators weren’t on their knees gasping for liquid down their throats.

Americans who come across this column would probably be baffled by my consideration of how long a queue is to get a drink at a refreshment stand but, in the UK, this makes all the difference. Queueing is a culture at home.

The odd wooden, squared bar is dotted around the property to provide gin and spirit lovers with their needs. You might even find more joy in grabbing your drink faster here, as the regular beer and refreshment tents are certainly the hotspots.

After years of watching American children’s shows in my younger years, I smiled a nostalgic smile every time I walked past a ‘fresh-squeezed’ lemonade stand which was paired with an ice cream and pretzel stand – another commodity I’ve only seen at events in the States.

Large groups of spectators lucky enough to drink in areas such as The Deck between the 16th and 18th holes and the Introcostal Club by the 13th hole could do so in their own privacy and space, similar to the hospitality stands that circle the 17th hole and line the 18th hole.

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What do you make of the TPC Sawgrass price of beer? Would you spend the day paying these prices? Tell us on X!