Harold Varner's caddie Chris Rice wins annual 17th hole competition with record shot

It really is a game of inches.  

Chris Rice, the caddie for Harold Varner III, hit the closest shot to the pin at the 17th hole of the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on Wednesday at 1 feet, 2 inches, winning the annual Caddie Competition in memory of Bruce Edwards and breaking the previous record by 2 inches.  

Chris Jones, who worked for Mark Wilson, hit a shot in 2005 to 1-4. 

Yuan Liu, the caddie for Xinjun Zhang, was second at 7-3 and J.J. Jakovac, Collin Morikawa's caddie, was third at 11-1.  

The winning caddie receives all player contributions to the pot on the 17th tee, a personalized, engraved money clip and a VIP parking spot in the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse lot, Thursday-Sunday of The Players 

The caddie competition is in memory of Edwards, Tom Watson’s long-time caddie who passed away n 2004 of ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” It became an informal Wednesday tradition early in Players history but the Tour began conducting a formal competition in 2000, the created the charitable component after Edwards passed away. 

The amount raised is matched by the PGA TOUR and donated to the Bruce Edwards Foundation.  

However, there's a caveat for Rice. Just like the winner of the Masters Par-3 Contest has never won the tournament, the player whose caddie has won the Players competition has never won. 

The closest a player has come to winning the tournament after his caddie won the 17th hole competition was in 2018, when Xander Schauffele tied for second, four shots behind Webb Simpson. His caddie, Austin Kaiser, won with a shot 7-2 from the hole.

Aaron Baddeley tied for sixth in 2011 after his looper, Anthony Knight won and Francesco Molinari finished solo ninth in 2010 after Jorge Camarra won.

Twelve players in the 20 previous caddie competitions missed the cut.

Perhaps that's what moved Varner to retweet a photo of the caddie competition leaderboard with his man Rice on top, and saying, "He might not caddie this week now."

Other caddie competition tidbits: 

• The longest winning shot was in 2011 by Anthony Knight, who worked for Aaron Baddeley, at 9-11. 

• Just as the Players Championship winner has never successfully defended his title, a caddie has never won the closest-to-the-pin contest two years in a row. In fact, there has never been a multiple winner, nor has a player had more than one caddie win the competition. 

• A caddie who was working for his brother won in back-to-back years. Christian Donald won in 2003, working for Luke Donald; and Robert Ames won in 2004, working for Stephen Ames. 

Players Championship Caddie Competition, in memory of Bruce Edwards 

2000: Ben Englebrecht, 5 feet 7.5 inches (Steve Flesch) 

2001: Brian Smith (John Huston), Ken Comboy (Thomas Bjorn), 6-3 

2002: Corby Segal (Brent Geiberger), 2-10 

2003: Christian Donald (Luke Donald), 9-1 

2004: Robert Ames (Stephen Ames), 4-6 

2005: Chris Jones (Mark Wilson), 1-4 

2006: Nick Helwig (Hank Kuehne), 6-0 

2007: Ray Farnell (Greg Owen), 5-3 

2008: Jeff Willett (Brian Bateman), 1-5 

2009: Garerth Lord (Robert Karlsson), 6-1 

2010: Jorge Camarra (Francesco Molinari), 2-6 

2011: Anthony Knight (Aaron Baddeley), 9-11 

2012: Brent Henley (Robert Garrigus), 3-7 

2013: James Walton (Y.E. Yang), 4-7 

2014: Chris Callas (Shawn Stefani), 7-8 

2015: Michael Hartford (Pat Perez), 3-7 

2016: Jon Yarbrough (Hunter Mahan), 5-3 

2017: Ian Finnish (Tommy Fleetwood), 6-11 

2018: Austin Kaiser (Xander Schauffele), 7-2  

2019: Danny Sahl (Vijay Singh), 4-3 

2021: Chris Rice (Harold Varner III), 1-2.