HAVEN, Wis. -- Sundays at any golf tournament are expected to test every facet of a player’s game. The course gets a little tougher and the pressure to execute down the stretch is nerve-exposing. At Whistling Straits today in the final round of the PGA Championship, the conditions are converging at just the right time to give golfers a new challenge that will play decide who will hoist the Wanamaker Trophy later this evening.
Conditions set up for wild Sunday finish at the PGA Championship
The course and conditions are converging at just the right time for a challenging finish at the PGA. Here are the trouble spots to watch out for as Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, and rest of the leaders go for the season’s final major late Sunday.
David Cannon/Getty Images
After two straight days with favorable winds and inviting pin placements, Whistling Straits has upped its game Sunday, and will receive a bit of help from mother nature as well. Today’s forecast calls for 90 degree temperatures by the time the leaders are out on the course, and they should be greeted by arguably the strongest winds of the tournament. Winds are expected to swirl around at 15-20 mph, with gusts going as high as 25 mph.
Strong winds aren’t preferable on any course, but at Whistling Straits they are especially problematic, as very few holes go directly into or with a breeze.
“It’s so hard to pick the right shot and to pick the right alignment in the cross breezes,” Jordan Spieth said on Friday when asked about the weather conditions of his first two rounds. “Almost every single hole is a cross wind. Almost every shot has a left-to-right or right-to-left cross wind and that’s very challenging to stay patient with it with a consistent ball flight. Because you want to be able to work it into pins.”
Working it into pins was challenging in the earlier rounds of the tournament, but today’s pin placements may make that borderline frightening. Several pin selections on key holes likely will factor in to who comes away with the victory. Let’s run through a few of them.
- The 597-yard 5th hole tucked into the lower left corner of the green, 17 paces on from the front and just 5 on from the edge. Oh, and it's also guarded by water along the front and left side. It's a par-5 so it's unlikely that players will get too risky with it, but the hazard isn't anything to mess around with on a potential birdie hole.
- The par-3 12th hole is playing just 152 yards, but it is tucked all the way in the back portion of the putting surface, hanging just four paces from the right edge of the green. Should players try to fly it back there and miss right, there are several bunkers and a giant body of water waiting to make their life hell. A conservative shot in the middle of the green still leaves a difficult putt on one of the most undulating surfaces on the course.
- The final three pins on 16, 17, and 18 all sit on the edge of trouble. A good score can be had on the par-5 16th, but trying to bite off too much can leave you with some wonky bunkers to play out of short and left, and it's no guarantee that par can be made from there. The 227-yard par 3 17th's pin is 5 paces from a 20-plus foot drop-off that can somehow be worse than you'd imagine.
- If you manage to play the 16th and 17th well, then all you have to do is wrap things up on the par-4 18th, which is playing 504 yards today with a brutal pin.
Just some of the trouble lurking to the left of the 17th green, where the pin sits right on top of this cliff.(Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)
"It ain't gonna be easy from now on" Elton J ...wind, pressure, drama all rising! 504 left to right into at 18!! pic.twitter.com/S4hzKQvgqQ
— Sir Nick Faldo (@NickFaldo006) August 16, 2015 That pin is just 11 paces on from the front and 6 on from side. If you come up short like Bubba Watson did in the playoff in 2010, there’s bunkers and a creek waiting for you. The final three or four holes at Whistling Straits have been called one of the toughest finishing stretches in championship golf. It’s not hard to see why on this Sunday.
It’s worth noting that Whistling Straits isn’t bone dry or cut down so short that nothing will hold. It’s been beautifully manicured to be receptive and will reward good shots if they’re out there. This won’t be a repeat performance of Sunday at Chambers Bay.
But it won’t be easy. The heat will dry the course up a touch, the winds will will get up more than they’ve seen since Thursday afternoon, and the pins will make players think twice. It’s all setting up for some great entertainment and an exciting finish. Who doesn’t want that?
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