MORE: A grueling finish at Quail Hollow
The players at this week's Wachovia Championship face perhaps the biggest high-risk/high-reward course on the PGA TOUR. Here are the five most pivotal shots at Quail Hollow Club:
| 1. The second shot at No. 7 |
| The seventh hole is a 532-yard par 5, the shortest of the four at Quail Hollow. A creek runs down the right side and opens into a small lake as it cozies up to the peninsula green. You have to thread your drive between the fairway bunkers, but if you hit long enough, you're looking at a long iron or fairway wood to the putting surface. Birdies here almost outnumber the pars -- 895 to 973 -- and the hole has also yielded 84 eagles, just eight fewer than the other three par 5s combined. |
| "You have to hit a good drive to have an opportunity to go for the green there," Billy Andrade said. "A lot of guys are going to go for that. That's a birdie hole, but if you don't pay attention, it can come up and grab you as well." |
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| 2. The drive on No. 8 |
| At 343 yards, with a slight dogleg right to a green guarded by a pair of bunkers, this hole can entice the big hitters. A long iron or fairway wood leaves a wedge to set up the birdie try on the small, sloping green. The hole has only yielded four eagles -- one of which came last year -- but there have been 645 birdies made there in the five years of the tournament. |
| "On the front, No. 8 is a par 4 where you can drive it up and get it close to the green and have a little easier second shot," Stewart Cink said. "I like that one." |
| Added Johnson Wagner: "No. 8 is drivable, but there's not that much risk there. If you hit it right, it would be in trouble, but there's not a pond or anything. It would be next to impossible to actually get it on that green. You can get it right up there at the green. " |
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| 3. The drive on No. 14 |
| This 345-yard, dogleg left par 4 is the one the long-knockers are more likely to try to drive. The tee shot is downhill, and even the well-placed 3- or 5-wood to a landing area that measures just 27 yards across usually yields a wedge to the green. Compounding the difficulty, though, is the water on the left side of the long, narrow green -- witness the 52 double bogeys and 13 triples. |
| "I think 14, the little short hole, is another great hole because you can almost get to the green," Lucas Glover said. "A few guys out here will be able to knock it on. But if you miss it, you've really got your hands full because of where they're going to put the pin. Anytime they put it up on that left side, if you hit it on the right, you've got kind of that downslope and you've got to hope that wedge stops or you're wet." |
| Added Andrade: "You've got water left, another skinny green. It's more, I think, a hole guys go for it. You'll see more guys having a chance of putting for eagle there. You can actually have a chance to get it on the green there if you hit a perfect tee shot." |
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| 4. The tee shot at No. 17 |
| This 217-yard par 3 requires a delicate long iron across a lake that frames half of the green that is bordered by a rock wall. There is a bunker at the front of the green, and there is only six feet between the putting surface and water on the left side. No other hole has produced more triple bogeys and only the 250-yard 6th hole -- of which Andrade says, "Is 6 a drivable par 4? Oh yeah, that's a par 3. It should be a par 4." -- and the 8th have relinquished fewer birdies. |
| "A par 3 -- I don't know if you ever consider that a risk-reward -- but (at) 17 if you get a little greedy and pull it a little bit or even push it a little for the right pins, you've got tough up and down or a water ball," Glover said. |
| "There's no bailout on that hole," Andrade agreed. "You bail right and it's still very, very difficult to make a three. If you can somehow get it on the green there four times, you're doing something pretty special. It's just a brutal hole." |
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| 5. The entire 18th hole |
| The 478-yard par 4 ranked the toughest finishing hole on TOUR in 2005, second in 2004, third in 2006 and fourth in 2007. The fairway is framed by bunkers to the right and a creek to the left. The second shot is uphill to a small green. David Toms made an 8 here to cap off his 2003 victory -- one of 28 scores of triple bogey or higher made during the history of the Wachovia Championship. |
| "I would say the tee shot at 18 is very risk-reward," Brandt Snedeker said. "If you're aggressive there and hit it down the left side, you can cut off a lot of yardage and make the hole more acceptable for a second shot. If you lay out to the right and play safe, it's a tough second shot and you've got no angle to come in from." |
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