TOUR Insider: Two weeks of the toughest finishing holes
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
One has a name that helps you remember. The other makes a lasting impression completely on its own.
But it's hard to imagine two more dangerous and demanding stretches of finishing holes than the ones PGA TOUR players will face in consecutive weeks at the Quail Hollow Championship and THE PLAYERS Championship.
In Charlotte this week, the 16th, 17th and 18th holes have been dubbed "The Green Mile" -- a more picturesque reality than that walk prisoners take from Death Row to their execution described in the 1996 Stephen King serial novel of the same name.
The same three holes on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass have attracted considerable attention but are -- as yet -- unnamed. Maybe Dye's Dilemma fits, since the trio designed by Pete Dye offers the player who takes risks a possible reward.
"These two weeks are probably the best two (stretches) back-to-back of the year," Brett Quigley said Tuesday after finishing a practice session on the putting green.
Small wonder then, that the game's top players are eager for the challenge.
The Quail Hollow Championship features seven of the top-10 players in the world and six of the top 10 in the FedExCup standings. THE PLAYERS annually boasts the strongest field in golf, top-to-bottom, and next week will be no exception.
Both courses are extremely challenging. Quail Hollow is a traditional tree-lined layout that demands a variety of shots. The Stadium Course is more modern, with spectator mounding and Dye's signature railroad ties to mark the landscape.
Quail Hollow's finishing stretch consists of the 217-yard, par-3 17th over water that is sandwiched between two demanding par 4s. The 16th is a 480-yard tester to a shallow green, while No. 18 is two yards shorter with a creek down the left side of the fairway.
The creek at No. 18 is narrow but nervy -- just ask Retief Goosen, who made a 9 there in 2006 while playing in the final group on Sunday. "Both sides go right into (the water) and that damn gravity gets it right to the bottom," Quigley said with a wry smile.
In the six-year history of the Quail Hollow Championship, only three pros -- Justin Rose (2003), Troy Matteson (2003) and Ernie Els (2007) -- have been able to play four rounds without making a bogey on one of the last three holes. In 2005, those three holes comprised the toughest finishing stretch on TOUR, and the Green Mile has been second each of the last three years.
"This stretch is way more difficult as far as making birdies," Rocco Mediate said, calling Quail Hollow's finish one of major proportions. "It's a lot more risk/reward next week. This week, if I can make three pars (each day), I'll be pretty pleased."
The Stadium Course can be a tad more generous given the fact that the 16th hole is a 523-yard par 5. Just ask Craig Perks, who chipped in for eagle there on Sunday in 2002, then made a 28-foot birdie putt at No. 17 and holed another wedge for par at the 18th on the way to his only PGA TOUR victory.
"If you make a par (at 16) there, you kind of feel like you've left one," Quigley said. "Depending on where you are in the tournament, 17 and 18 can be the toughest tee shots in the world -- back to back, as hard as you want."
For every success story, there are disasters like the one that befell Len Mattiace in 1998 when he plummeted from contention after hitting two balls into the water at the infamous island par-3 17th. And the 462-yard 18th, which features a lake down the entire left side of the fairway, can also be a cruel temptress.
"(No). 17 (at Quail Hollow) is a bear of a hole, but there's bail-out right, and that's the difference between that and THE PLAYERS," Anthony Kim, who defends his title this week, says. "Even though it's a 9-iron, it's almost harder that it's a 9-iron because you get the ball in the air and it stays in the air for so long.
"And 18 is survival at Sawgrass. Here, you can hit a good drive and have a chance at birdie if the pin's in the right position. So it's two totally different animals."
Paul Goydos' hopes of a career-defining victory last year faded with a bogey on the 18th -- a hole Mediate calls "just risk; a reward is a par" -- on Sunday and ended when he rinsed a shot at No. 17 in the playoff with Sergio Garcia. And he wasn't alone.
No one managed to make it through Dye's Dilemma -- or whatever moniker you deem appropriate -- without a bogey last year. So maybe the two finishing stretches aren't that different at all.
The difference, Quigley says, may be in how exposed a player feels once he gets to the 16th hole on the Stadium Course. Dye's signature mounding and modern day bleachers and hospitality suites create a busy amphitheater.
"You just feel like there are a lot more eyes on you, and everything feels like it's magnified a little more," Quigley said.
Todd Hamilton, the winner of the 2004 Open Championship, feels that the abundant water that cozies up to the final three holes on the Stadium Course creates an intimidation factor that sets the final three holes of the PGA TOUR's premier event apart.
"I think you stand up there after you've hit your drive on 16, the par 5, and all you see is a small green and water," he explained. "You get up on 17 -- it's actually a pretty good sized green, but when you get on the tee it seems very small. And then 18, you see a small sliver of fairway and a lot of water. So those three holes you're probably going to see some weird shots, shots you wouldn't see if there was no water out there.
"Here there's not as much water, except on 17, and there's a bunch, but I think the intimidation factor of the last three holes at THE PLAYERS is what makes those three finishing holes and the three here just a little bit different."
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