Late Sunday, a player may need to birdie or par the 18th hole to win the Senior PGA Championship.
Good luck with that.
The 470-yard, par-4 finishing hole continues to confound the world’s best senior golfers. It ranked the most difficult in the first two rounds (4.40).
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“I have made two bogeys on that hole, so I'm still trying to figure out how to make a 4 there,” Stewart Cink, who would have been tied for the second-round lead had he made two pars at No. 18, said after the second round.
“The reason it's a difficult hole is it's pretty long. Because of the way the fairway bunkers are positioned, if you drive it in the intended area from the tee, then you're going to have a 5-, 6-iron (coming in). Guys in my group have been (hitting) hybrids in there. The green has a lot of waves, and it's hard to get the ball into an aggressive position for a birdie putt.
“It's like a lot of the par-4s out here. Where the bunkering is and how the bunkers pinch in the fairway, it leaves you really far back on the approach shots. That makes the hole just really difficult to score.”
Through the first two rounds, the field hit the 18th fairway 72.9 percent, but only reached the green in regulation 43.2 percent.
Two-time Senior PGA Champion Colin Montgomerie was five-under through Saturday’s third round, but double-bogeyed 18 after he laid up and three-putted from 30 feet.
The par-4 fifth hole has been the second-most difficult on The Concession, averaging 4.36 in the first two rounds.
