Beware: The Bear Trap waiting to feast on golfers at The Honda

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When players reach the 15th tee, they are shown exactly what awaits over the next three holes.

As players reach the 15th tee on the PGA National Champions course, they are greeted by a giant bear statue. This is no silly on-course tchotchke, it's more of a stern reminder fo what lies ahead -- one of the toughest three-hole stretches of golf on the PGA TOUR.

When Jack Nicklaus redesigned the George and Tom Fazio-designed layout in 1990, he added particular teeth to the 15th, 16th and 17th holes. Accordingly, that stretch picked up a Nicklausian nickname -- The Bear Trap.

How tough of a three-hole march is it? ShotLink's Alex Turnbull put together some statistics, then found out how the entire Honda Classic field has fared on the holes over the years.

They've had a bear of a time.

MORE BEAR TRAP: How every player has fared | How champs have played Bear Trap

With such a stretch of holes, it is no surprise that the entire back side at PGA National was the toughest this side of a major championship last year:

The Bear Trap starts with an intimidating par-3 over water that is even more daunting when the wind blows. There wasn't a harder par-3 on TOUR last year (and note that the 15th is the only PGA National hole represented here):

What does it all add up to? A three-hole stretch that, collectively, rivals the rest of the course for relation-to-par difficulty:

To find out how your favorite player this week has fared at The Bear Trap, click here.