Philip Reidon why the 16th, a par four of 402 yards that curls around Lake Hazeltine, could make or break dreams

COME SUNDAY evening, when the eyes have that killer stare that golfers get on the home stretch of a major, one hole more than any other could prove the decisive factor in who gets his name etched onto the Wanamaker Trophy: the 16th, a par four of 402 yards that curls around Lake Hazeltine, could make or break dreams.

The 16th is a classic hole. On a monstrous course where length is king – with the par three 13th measuring 248 yards, the par four 12th stretching to 518 yards and the par five 15th running to 642 yards – this particular hole offers a challenge of a different kind.

Indeed, Johnny Miller once referred to it as, “the hardest par four I have ever played”.

From the tee, players are faced with a carry of 220 yards across water to a fairway that runs alongside the lake. Apart from clearing the lake off the tee, the real challenge is to position the ball on the fairway; too long, and a creek that wiggles its way up the left-hand side also comes into play.

The 16th’s reputation goes ahead of it. When the 1991 US Open – won by Payne Stewart – was played here, it was ranked the toughest hole in the championship with an average score of 4.39. It ranked as the 12th-hardest hole on the US Tour that season. When the 2002 US PGA was staged here, it again bared its teeth. It played to an average of 4.49 strokes – almost half a shot above its par – and was again ranked the hardest hole of the championship and, that year, the fifth toughest on the US Tour.

That week, there were 49 birdies on the hole (including one by Tiger Woods in his ultimately futile late chase on eventual champion Rich Beem in the final round), but there were four times more scores – 181 registering bogey or worse – over par.

A number of factors combine to make this hole so challenging. For starters, players standing on the tee by lakeside must invariably contend with a wind that blows in off the water. “The wind is the strongest right there, so it is a unique hole (on the course),” remarked Phil Mickelson.

There is very little margin for error off the tee shot, with the lake running down the right and the creek down the left. Woods once remarked, “If you stand on the tee-box and look at the middle of the fairway, all you see is the reeds . . . it’s the course’s signature hole, and one that everyone is going to remember.”

It wasn’t always this way. Robert Trent Jones, the course designer, originally made the 16th a par three (of 225 yards) with a tree overhanging the left side of the green. When the 1970 US Open was held here, some players criticised the 16th and called it the “world’s only dogleg par three”.

Some eight years later, Jones converted the hole into a par four (of 384 yards) by building a new tee-box beside the lake and creating a new peninsula green. The course retained its par 72 with Jones changing the 17th from a par four to a par three.

If the wind blows at all, the hole will offer more heartbreak than joy to those contending down the stretch on Sunday. But, as Beem and Woods proved with respective birdies in their final rounds of the 2002 PGA, it can be conquered.