Tag: The Bear Trap

Check the yardage book: PGA National’s Champion Course for the 2024 Cognizant Classic on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine takes you through the Bear Trap and the rest of PGA National’s Champion Course.

The Champion Course at PGA National – site of this week’s Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches on the PGA Tour – was designed by the team of Tom Fazio and George Fazio and opened in 1981. The course has been renovated by Jack Nicklaus over the past two decades.

Located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and home to a stretch of holes dubbed the Bear Trap – Nos. 15, 16 and 17 – the Champion has major history. It was host to the 1983 Ryder Cup, in which the United States beat Europe 14 ½-13 ½, and it hosted the 1987 PGA Championship won by Larry Nelson in a playoff over Lanny Wadkins. Now PGA National is the first stop on the PGA Tour’s annual Florida Swing.

The Champion ranks No. 7 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in each state, and it ties for No. 69 on the list of top resort courses in the U.S.

The course will play to 7,147 yards with a par of 71 for the Cognizant Classic. No. 6 plays as a par 5 for resort guests (and is marked as such on the following yardage map), but it counts as a par 4 for the PGA Tour pros.

PGA National Resort is home to six courses, including two nontraditional layouts that include the new Match Course by Andy Staples, which features holes that can be played from a multitude of lengths with no set par, and the new nine-hole, par-3 Staple Course.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at PGA National.

Golfweek’s Best: Ranking the courses on the PGA Tour’s Florida Swing

How do PGA National, Bay Hill, TPC Sawgrass and Innisbrook stack up for the 2023 Florida Swing?

The PGA Tour moves into its Florida Swing with a month of resort golf courses that come complete with a Bear Trap, a Snake Pit, the home track of Arnold Palmer, the world’s most famous island green and plenty of water. Let’s get things started with a look at the courses on tap through March 19.

The Florida Swing starts this week with the Honda Classic at PGA National’s Champion Course, followed by the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, The Players Championship on the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, then the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort.

Golfweek’s Best employs more than 800 raters around the world to evaluate courses. They rate each course they play according to 10 prescribed criteria, then offer a final rating on a scale of 1 to 10. Those individual ratings are averaged to produce a final course rating, which then can be compared to other layouts. Keep scrolling to see how the courses of the Florida Swing rate.

Check the yardage book: PGA National’s Champion Course for the Honda Classic

The Honda Classic kicks off the Florida Swing with water, water everywhere at PGA National.

PGA National’s Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida – site of this week’s Honda Classic on the PGA Tour – originally was designed by the team of Tom Fazio and George Fazio and was renovated by Jack Nicklaus in 2014.

The Champion opened in 1981 and was home to the 1983 Ryder Cup, in which the U.S. beat Europe 14.5-13.5. It also hosted the 1987 PGA Championship, in which Larry Nelson beat Lanny Wadkins in a playoff. This week’s Honda Classic is the first stop on the Tour’s annual Florida Swing.

Nicklaus’ redesign includes a three-hole stretch dubbed the Bear Trap on Nos. 15, 16 and 17. Two watery par 3s with the wet stuff short and right, plus a par 4 over and around more water, typically demand bravado and supreme ballstriking as the tournament is decided.

The Champion Course ranks No. 10 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts. It also ties for No. 88 on Golfweek’s Best list for resort courses in the U.S.

PGA National Resort is home to 99 holes of golf in all and has recently undergone a $100 million renovation that includes the new Match Course by Andy Staples, which features holes that can be played from a multitude of lengths with no set par, and the new nine-hole, par-3 Staple Course.

The Champion Course will play to 7,125 yards with a par of 70 for the Honda Classic.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.

The Bear Trap has nothing on another mean stretch of Honda Classic holes at PGA National

You know all about the Bear Trap. But don’t forget about the Grizzly Den.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – By all accounts, Jack Nicklaus is a gentleman.

Humble in victory, gracious in defeat. A legend for his gatherings with the media. Accessible with a signature, accommodating with a pose. A powerful charitable arm that extends wide and far.

So how does one explain the Bear Trap, the handywork of Nicklaus that is just downright mean and serves as a punch to the face of the players in the Honda Classic?

An intimidating statue of a bear stands over the par-3 15th tee on the Champion Course at PGA National, the commencement of a three-hole stretch named in honor of the Golden Bear that is one of the toughest on the PGA Tour and exacts blood, sweat and tears from many who venture over its soil.

At 788 yards of potential ruin featuring water hazards and sharp edges on all three holes, the windswept par-3 15th, par-4 16th and par-3 17th Bear Trap leaves many players in the Honda Classic slumped over in defeat. More than 1,6000 balls have found the water on these holes since 2007.

“That stretch is about guts,” Nicklaus said.

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Many players have lost their guts after tangling with the Bear Trap.

Yet it’s not the only three-hole stretch on the course that gets to the insides of the players in an upheaval way. Nicklaus delivers another three-hole haymaker on the front side of the course, as Nicklaus’ architectural paws also are all over the par-3 5th, par-4 6th and par-3 7th.

The Grizzly Den if you will, where water hazards and razor edges await.

“That’s an under-appreciated stretch on the golf course,” 2014 FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel said. “The players know it’s a stretch that can dictate how you are going to have to play the last few holes to make a cut, or play, you know, the next 11 holes to sort of make up for something you did in that stretch.”

It’s 912 yards of tension, starting with the par-3, 217-yard 5th protected on the left by water. The par-4, 479-yard sixth requires a safe drive to elude the water running down the entire left side of the hole and nothing but misery in the form of mounds and bunkers on the right. The par-3, 226-yard 7th has out-of-bounds on the left but thankfully does not have a water hazard.

Last year, this three-hole stretch played tougher than the Bear Trap; holes 5-6-7 played out to 277 over par while the Bear Trap played out to 230 over par. There were more bogeys on the Grizzly (278) than on the Bear Trap (214).

In last year’s Honda Classic, the field averaged a combined 10.659 strokes on the Grizzly Den (0.659 over par) while the Bear Trap yielded an average of 10.546 (0.546 over par).

In other words, as Horschel said, players have to make up for something that happened on 5, 6 and 7.

“It’s one of those stretches where there aren’t too many places where you can get comfortable,” Horschel said. “You feel like you’re up in the mountains because the air is a little thin around those holes and it’s tougher to breathe.”

Here’s a closer look at the Grizzly Den.

Honda Classic’s COVID-limited crowd more subdued at Bear Trap than normal

The Honda Classic’s COVID-limited crowd has been more subdued and appreciative at the Bear Trap this year.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — With a COVID-imposed limit of 10,000 patrons per day at a tournament that attracted upwards of 50,000 fans per day in past years, this year’s Honda Classic has a much different feel for fans, vendors and officials.

Concession sales are down, and the reduced crowds at the Bear Trap, which comprises the difficult 15th, 16th and 17th holes at the Champion course at PGA National Resort & Spa, are much less raucous than in past years. Grandstands around the greens that were once jammed with noisy fans now have quieter, socially distanced fans.

“You notice the difference in the stands, definitely, but the atmosphere is still the same,” said volunteer Valerie Coope of Stuart, Florida, who, along with her husband, Daniel, operated the ShotLink system at the 16th green.

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For many years, the couple has worked primarily at the 16th hole with ShotLink, which records the length of every shot, including putts, hit by every player. “You can’t beat being out in the sun, being this close to the players.”

The adjacent par-3 17th hole was always the tournament’s noisiest, with fans in the grandstands around the tee shouting encouragement, and, in the case of some players, insults, as the golfers prepared to hit iron shots to a green fronted on three sides by water.

The fans were much more subdued Thursday and Friday, expressing appreciation for good tee shots and commiserating with, rather than ridiculing, the pros whose shots splashed down short of the green.

Honda Classic: Leaderboard

“It’s been pretty tame,” said marshal Lorraine Farmer, a West Palm Beach, Florida, native who has been a volunteer along with her husband since the days when the tournament was known as the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic.

As a marshal, Farmer’s job is to hold up “Quiet Please” signs as players prepare to hit their tee shots. At past Hondas, especially late in the afternoon when some fans had enjoyed multiple adult beverages, shushing the crowd was a challenge. Friday afternoon, the sound was more of a low murmur.

Chase Parker of Eugene, Oregon, Todd Fulton of Sarasota, Florida, Jarrod Lussier of Jupiter, Florida, and Anthony Huber of Verona, New Jersey, hung out between the 17th tee and green, where they cheered players as they walked past them toward the green.

In past years, the crowd along the ropes might have been five or more people deep. The four friends didn’t have anyone in front of or behind them.

“The crowds are nothing like they were,” Fulton said.

“We’re just happy to be here,” Huber added. “We love this.”

Another thing they loved: Not having to wait 10 minutes to get something to eat or drink.

At the Goslings Bear Trap by the 16th green and 17th tee, a woman named Brianna served a variety of rum drinks to customers. She said the most popular cocktail was the Dark ’n Stormy, which features Goslings dark rum and ginger beer.

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“It was a lot busier the past few years, but there’s still a pretty great turnout I feel like,” she said. “We’re definitely busier today than we were yesterday. I think we’re on target for the projected sales.

“I guess this year (based on the limited attendance) they projected it differently. I was told that the years prior it felt like you were at a concert almost. It was packed.”

At a nearby refreshment stand between the 10th and 17th greens, employees Amber and Jack said business was slow, but steady.

“It hasn’t been too busy, but we do have enough customers coming in that we keep going,” Amber said. “We definitely had a lot more people last year. We don’t have a lot of people waiting in line. Last year, it was really packed, and we had a lot of people backed up in all three lines. Now, we have a steady flow. Everyone comes in and usually the three stations are good enough to get everyone.”

She and Jack added that bottles of water were by far their most popular item, followed by cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches.

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The Bear Trap will be home to many victims at Honda Classic

Three water-laden holes rank as one of the toughest stretches on Tour of non-majors courses.

For the record, the Bear Trap begins at the 180-yard, par-3 No. 15, the first of three consecutive sinister holes at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Champion Course at PGA National Resort & Spa. But don’t tell that to current European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington. The two-time Honda Classic champion says the butterflies in his stomach begin fluttering much earlier.

“I start thinking about it the night before, for sure,” Harrington said.

Harrington’s fear isn’t unwarranted. These three water-laden holes rank as the fourth-toughest stretch on Tour of non-majors courses that have been played in at least 10 or more seasons since 2007. Since that time, there have been 1,515 balls in the water on the three-hole stretch and 446 of 570 players, or 78 percent of the field, have hit at least one ball in the drink on the Bear Trap.

Water guards the front, the entire right side and rear of No. 15, with a large bunker to the left making for a bail-out magnet. The hole is so challenging that Harrington said, “You hope to miss the short putt on the 14th green so you’re not up first on 15. You love to see your playing partners birdie 14. I really mean that; so, you get another feel for the hole. Then you’ve just got to man up and hit the shot.”

Russell Henley hits off the 15th tee during the final round of The 2014 Honda Classic golf tournament at PGA National GC Champion Course. This is where it gets fun. Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

That strategy has worked for Harrington, who along with Daniel Summerhays, has the best cumulative score to par at 15 – 5 under – since 2007. Last year, the field deposited 72 balls in the water there alone, marking the most balls in the water on this hole in the ShotLink era (since 2003).

On to 16, which Harrington actually called “a breather,” but try telling that to Ryan Palmer, who is 18 over, with five water balls, in 42 career rounds there. This dogleg-right, 434-yard par 4 features water guarding the right side of the hole and a forced carry on the approach over a lake to the green. Finding the putting surface is only half the battle on a hole where 271 three-putts have been made since 2007, most of any hole at PGA National.

The pressure ratchets up again at 17, a 172-yard water-laden par 3, for Harrington.

“The problem on 17 now is it’s enclosed,” Harrington said. “You really struggle to tell exactly what angle the wind is coming at.”

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At least Harrington has a fond memory to recall. He stiffed a 5-iron to 3 feet on the second playoff hole to win the title in 2015. Defending Honda Classic champion Sungjae Im is the only player currently with eight or more rounds who has yet to miss the green in regulation since 2007. But the rest of the field hasn’t been so fortunate. Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy both have hit six balls in the water here during the last 13 editions of the tournament, tying for the most of any player. When the wind is swirling, good luck.

“That stretch is about precision,” Nicklaus once said. “That stretch is about guts.”

Even Tiger Woods fell victim to The Bear Trap the last time he teed it up at the Honda. In 2018, he played Nos. 15-17 in eight over par for the tournament and finished eight strokes behind champion Justin Thomas.

As the leaders vie for the title come Sunday, they can take heart at Jason Bohn’s accomplishment. During the second round of the 2016 Honda Classic, Bohn began experiencing chest pains, which were no relation to the heart-thumping pressure that grips players at The Bear Trap. It turned out that his left anterior descending artery – A.K.A., the widow maker – was 99 percent blocked. One year later, Bohn returned with a clean bill of health and boasted to Nicklaus that he played The Bear Trap in level par while suffering a heart attack.

“So it’s not as hard as he thinks it is,” Bohn said.

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Eamon’s Corner: Welcome to the Florida swing, let the carnage continue

Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch discusses the challenge ahead on the Florida swing and the enjoyment fans have watching pros play difficult holes.

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One of the shared pleasures of being a golf fan is appreciating the world’s finest players hitting shots we can only dream of.

A more secret pleasure, one we don’t often talk about and in respectable company is the sheer delight seeing those same players be humbled in a way we can all relate to.

Welcome to the Florida swing.

Following Honda Classic, the 21st stop on the PGA tour schedule this season, and its infamous Bear Trap, the rest of the season’s events will do whatever it takes to stand out on the crowded calendar.

There aren’t as many holes that wreak havoc at the Arnold Palmer Invitational as there were at the Honda Classic, but the next week during the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, the carnage begins anew.

It’s not a noble sentiment, but it is what it is.

Check out the latest edition of Eamon’s Corner.

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Sungjae Im drives off with his maiden PGA Tour title at Honda Classic

The 21-year-old Im fired a 4-under 66 and edged Canadian Mackenzie Hughes by one stroke at PGA National.

Sungjae Im finally backed up his reputation as one of the emerging stars of the PGA Tour by earning his maiden victory at the Honda Classic.

Im, the 21-year-old reigning Tour rookie of the year, played the infamous Bear Trap, three consecutive water-laden holes beginning at 15 at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Champion course at PGA National Resort and Spa, in 2 under en route to shooting a final-round 4-under 66. Im had to scramble for par at the par-5 18 to finish at 6-under 274, and edged Canadian Mackenzie Hughes by one stroke.

“I’ve been in this spot many times. I just felt like the experiences really helped, especially on the last few holes. I just wanted to get a little more aggressive [on the last four holes]. I was just happy to finish the way that I did,” Im said through his caddie, Albin Choi, who served as an interpreter.

Im, who turned pro at age 17, played a Tour-high 35 tournaments last season, recording seven top-10 finishes and was the only rookie to qualify for the 30-man Tour Championship last season. His teammates at the Presidents Cup called him “The Weapon,” and his swing has been compared to the USGA ball-testing robot Iron Byron because it is so repeatable. The South Korean, who entered the week ranked No. 34 in the world, also doesn’t have a permanent residence and lives week-to-week at hotels with his parents joining him in a separate room and helping him in his U.S. adventure.

On a wild day where no less than four golfers held or shared the lead, Im birdied four of the five first holes to cut into the lead of 54-hole leader Tommy Fleetwood. Im took just 11 putts in his first 10 holes before back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 12 and 13 temporarily slowed his march to victory.

Hughes, 29, nearly went from the cutline to the winner’s circle. After making the cut on the number at 3 over, Hughes shot 66, the low round of the day on Saturday, to improve 51 spots. Playing alongside Im, Hughes holed a bunker shot at 13 on Sunday and played his first 15 holes without a bogey to join the trophy chase.

Fleetwood, No. 12 in the world has won five times on the European Tour but he’s the only player in the top 20 of the world ranking without a victory on the PGA Tour. Fleetwood, runner up at the 2018 U.S. Open and 2019 British Open, raced to a three-stroke lead with birdies on the first two holes, but failed to make another birdie until 17 and hit his second shot at 18 in the water to blow another chance to put an end to the questions of when he will win on the PGA Tour. Fleetwood finished alone in third after a 1-over 71.

Im seized the moment at 15, where water guards both the front and right sides of the green, and a large bunker to the left is a magnet for those who bail out. Im stuck a 5-iron to 8 feet and canned the putt for birdie, and knocked his tee shot to 8 feet again at 17 and rolled the downhill putt in moments after Hughes poured in a 54-foot birdie putt to momentarily tie for the lead. But Hughes, who had missed five cuts in a row and hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish since the Charles Schwab Challenge in May, hooked his second shot into the stands at 18 and failed to make birdie. He finished with a second straight 66.

Im was the 36-hole leader at Honda a year ago, but the moment proved to be too big for him and he ballooned to a Saturday 77 and finished T-51. Not this time. Im became the youngest champion of the Honda Classic and the 14th international player to win the title in the last 27 years.

“Even after winning Rookie of the Year and having a few chances to win, I really wanted to get that win,” Im said. “Had a few good chances that slipped away, but I’m also still very grateful that I could win at such a young age, and to have it happen as fast as it did, I’m very happy and satisfied.”

Brendan Steele misses out on bagging a Honda, but grabs 36-hole lead

Brendan Steele nearly aced his nemesis hole, No. 15 at PGA National, and fired a 3-under 67 for a 1-stroke lead over a trio of players.

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The Bear Trap at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Champion course at PGA National Resort & Spa has owned Brendan Steele for the better part of his career. He arrived at the 15th, the first of three consecutive menacing holes, 26 over par for his previous 31 attempts at the infamous stretch, and 12 over on the 15th alone.

But this time would be different. Steele gazed at the water-laden par-3, playing 178 yards on this day, and thought, “Great number,” he said. “It was just kind of as hard as I could hit an 8-iron.”

Steele, 36, launched a beauty that landed just shy of the hole and turned left for the cup. It looked to be an ace, but horseshoed out of the hole, stopping within kick in distance for a birdie that extended his lead. A hole-in-one would have won him a Honda, but nothing could deflate Steele as he signed for a 3-under 67 and a one-stroke lead over three players at the midway point of the Honda Classic.

“I wish it would have gone in, but I was happy to tap in and move on,” Steele said of his near ace at 15.

Despite a bogey at 18 after going for the green in two and finding the water, Steele grabbed his second solo 36-hole lead of the season and his 36-hole score of 5-under 135 is 17 strokes better than he fared through two rounds in the Honda last year.

“I felt this good at Sony and it paid off, and I’m feeling that way again,” said Steele, who lost the Sony Open in Hawaii in a sudden-death playoff to Cameron Smith last month.

J.T. Poston followed up 67 with a 69 on Friday morning and is tied for second with the English duo of Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, a pair of 40-somethings at 4-under 136. Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, who made his Tour-best 33rdconsecutive cut is two strokes farther back after a 68.

That’s three Union Jacks bunched together and all bidding for a Tour title this weekend that would be a long time coming. Westwood, who was victorious earlier this year at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi Championship, hasn’t won on U.S. soil since the 2010 FedEx St. Jude Invitational, while Donald’s last triumph was the 2012 Valspar Championship. And Fleetwood? He’s seeking his maiden victory on the PGA Tour.

PGA National, where the winning score of the Honda Classic has been in single digits in seven of the last nine years, is its typical torture chamber. But the unusually chilly temperatures and breezy conditions haven’t given Donald, Westwood and Fleetwood fits.

“A cold morning like this morning doesn’t really faze us too much,” Westwood explained. “We’re definitely not getting the snoods out and the beanies.”

Westwood, who turns 47 in April, is playing this week on a sponsor’s exemption that he requested from the tournament director last May at the PGA Championship. Westwood credited his resurgence to the work he’s done on his swing with swing instructor Robert Rock and with instructor Phil Kenyon on his putting.

Westwood started controlling his ball flight better since working with Rock in September, and Kenyon got Westwood to switch to the claw grip at about the same time. Westwood also has worked with a psychiatrist and adopted a more carefree attitude to the game.

“I’m not sure it’s ever been this enjoyable,” said Westwood after shooting 69 on Friday. “You know, I’ve always almost treated it too seriously. It’s nice to go out there and not really care.”

“Lee has obviously proven that age is just a number,” said Donald, 42, who tied for the low round of the day with a 66. “Obviously I’ve had a little bit of a lean period the last couple years, but just seeing those guys continue to grind and continue to fight and do well, you know, it’s nice to see, and certainly it motivates me.”

Younger, longer, more athletic players have emerged and knocked Donald and Westwood, two former World No. 1s who never managed to win a major, from the ranks of the Tour’s elite, but they’re proving they’re not done yet. Westwood told a colorful tale of what it is like for him to play with these young stars who are often half his age.

“They’ll say, ‘How long have you been out here? And I say, ‘This is my 28th season,’ and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, right,’ and then I look at them, and I can see that they’re thinking, I’m only 24. Or, ‘When did you turn pro? 1993. How old are you? Oh, yeah, same age as my dad.’ That’s always a good one. I like that one. I just put a bit extra into the next drive and try to knock it past them.”

An already light field, with only one of the top-10 ranked players in the world electing to play this week, was dealt another blow when World No. 3 Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Louis Oosthuizen and Justin Rose were all dismissed after missing the 36-hole cut. Only eight strokes separate first from last among the 69 players that will make the weekend.

“I’m looking forward to the grind this weekend,” Steele said. “I know it’s going to be really hard around here. There’s really no easy shots, so you’ve got to be ready.”

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