CALAMITY LANEThe final four holes at the Atlanta Athletic Club proved to be a tough test for golfers at the PGA Championship over the weekend.Hole Par – Distance Bogeys – Avg. ScoreNo. 15 3 260 120 3.37No. 16 4 476 106 4.17No. 17 3 207 55 3.16No. 18 4 507 150 4.58
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — The final four holes of the Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands Course has a new nickname.
Call them, Calamity Lane.
Golfers called the diabolical collection of finishing holes the most difficult in golf. Results over that four-hole stretch first determined golfers who made the cut at the PGA Championship.
Then Calamity Lane determined who would rise to the top of the leaderboard. Runner-up Jason Dufner played them 3 under during the first three rounds and champion Keegan Bradley played them even through the first three days.
“The course was so tough that no lead is safe,” Bradley said. “I kept trying to myself that.”
Robert Karlsson finished Sunday with three straight bogeys and wound up three shots out of a playoff.
“I played the last four holes over the week probably a couple over,” said Karlsson, who reached 8 under for the week before his bogey-streak. “Everything from 13 and in is hard.”
Scott Verplank dropped two shots on No. 17 when his ball dropped into the water. Lee Westwood bogeyed the last and Luke Donald bogeyed two of the four coming in.
“At the beginning of the day, I thought if I could get to maybe 6- or 7-under, I might have a chance,” Donald said. “I thought I had to press a little bit and take on some pins on those last few holes. It’s a tough stretch to make up for.”
No. 15, a 160-yard par 3 with water in play down the right side played as the second hardest hole of the week.
“It’s not a lot of fun to play,” Adam Scott said earlier in the week. “You’ve got to hit a great shot just to get it near the green, but there’s so much trouble left and water on the right. It’s an intimidating hole for sure.”
The final hole — which plays as a par-5 for members — is a 507 yard par 4 with water down the left side and in front of the green. It played as the hardest hole of the week with a scoring average closer to five than four.
“It’s not a very good hole at any spot, especially the finishing hole for a tournament like this,” said 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman. “I would say you could improve it dramatically by making it a par 5 and taking us to the back tee.”
But that could change the name of the finishing four holes to something like Easy Street.