No. 17: No place to hide

The par-3 17th hole at the Quail Hollow Club is a beautiful place for a golf ball to die.

It is 217 yards—give or take a few paces—of gut check.

"The world's only driveable par-5," Peter Jacobsen once called it.

By the time the Wachovia Championship reaches full boil Sunday afternoon, the 17th hole will have helped determine the tournament's story line. Ultimately, it might determine the champion.

Last year, Phil Mickelson played the hole 7 over par, making three double bogeys and a bogey. Those seven shots kept Mickelson from joining the playoff that Vijay Singh eventually won against Sergio Garcia and Jim Furyk.

Had Garcia not rinsed his tee shot at the 17th hole on Sunday, trying to muscle a 7-iron over the water, he could have spared himself the frustration of wasting what was left of the six-shot lead he took into the final 18 holes.

"I've seen all kinds of disasters on that hole," 2003 champion David Toms said.

That's because the 17th hole is as easy as flossing Godzilla's teeth.

• It is the hardest par-3 hole on the PGA Tour the past three years, with an average score of 3.336;
• Last year, 46 double bogeys were made on the 17th hole, more than all but two holes (regardless of par) played on the PGA Tour;
• A total of 47 balls splashed down in the lake that fronts the green and hugs its left side.

"That's the hardest par-3 I've seen since the 17th at Kiawah," CBS announcer David Feherty said, alluding to perhaps the most famously difficult par-3 in Ryder Cup history.

"It's a brutal examination at exactly the right time."

When players reach the 17th tee, they have done the bulk of their day's work. However, the toughest part remains.

Quail Hollow's finish, which builds like a crescendo, actually starts across the lake from the 17th at the par-4 14th, where the green sits perched on the edge of the water.

Then there's a rolling, dogleg par-5 before a long, demanding par-4 at the 16th.

Before players get to the ferocious finishing hole, they find themselves tucked in among the pine trees on the 17th tee, cut into a gentle hillside to the right of the 16th green.

"It's a hard hole when you're a member playing for fun," Brad Faxon said. "When you add a championship on the line and you're tied for the lead and Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are there, it's a really hard shot. You don't have any room for error."

In 1996, course designer Tom Fazio rebuilt the 17th hole, pulling the green down from the hillside on the right so it requires a stacked stone wall to hold it above the water.

The primary tee where members play is built to the left of the 16th green and, in changing the angle of approach, it changes the nature of the hole.

Though the tee shot from the regular tees must carry the water, it plays away from the lake on the left side of the green. It is an easier angle of approach and lessens the effect the green's contour, which slopes from front to back and left to right toward the water.

It provides a bigger target and, consequently, more margin for error.

There has been discussion about playing from the left tee during the tournament but, at least for now, it has been nixed.

"There is no inclination to change the location of tees for the tournament," Quail Hollow President Johnny Harris said. "In fact, if we get more conversation about it, I'll go put hospitality tents on the (left) tee. I'm tired of hearing it."

Fazio told Harris to leave the hole as it is.

"The tournament is starting to get a tradition there," Fazio said. "I said let's stay where we are. What's wrong with where it is?"

If the idea is to produce double bogeys, some players have a problem with that.

"If an architect thinks people are there to watch people crash and burn, that's sad," Olin Browne said. "If you want to make people miserable so other people can watch that, we have a problem. There's an epidemic of that in our world. It's stupid."

If there's a problem with the 17th, it's when the hole is cut in the back left section of the green. The slope of the putting surface runs that way, which means balls are sliding toward the water.

When players are hitting long irons into that location, it's possible to land a tee shot on the green and have it roll into the water. It happened more than once last year when the wind was coming from behind the players.

"You try to carry the ball onto the front so it won't go over the green," Toms said. "When it lands on the green, it wants to kick toward the water. If you miss to the right, you have no shot."

What could be considered a bail-out area—off the right side of the green—doesn't promise an easy par because of the contours that come into play on the chip shot.

"Bail out right, you're probably going to make a four," Faxon said. "Hit it left, you're probably going to make five or worse. It's one of those shots that make you suck it up."

Like average golfers, the pros know what's waiting for them when they get to No. 17.

"We're taught not to think ahead but there are certain tournaments when you step on the course you think about certain holes," Faxon said. "If you can just get past that hole ... "

The 17th hole can be played effectively. Paul Goydos played it 2 under par in 2003. Jonathan Kaye and David Peoples matched that in 2004.

On Sunday last year, Furyk and Singh hit beautiful 6-irons within 20 feet of the hole in the sudden-death playoff.

"I don't dislike it," Davis Love III said. "It's a very hard hole. It's a hard par and a real hard birdie.

"If they're going to fix something, I'd rather them fix No. 18. I have my own struggles with it."

Provider:
Ron Green, Jr.
rgreenjr@charlotteobserver.com