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Notebook: A Sneaky Long Hole

Atlanta's 500-plus-yard Monster

By Gary Van Sickle

The card said 490, but in fact, the 18th was well over 500 yards -- the longest par-4 hole in any major.  Fred Vuich GOLF PLUS EXTRA Van's Top 10: Year of the Kid My Shot: Bruce Zabriski This Old Course: Right on Track TRUST ME The PGA Championship has become the most exciting major. We had Tiger Woods versus Sergio García in 1999, Tiger versus Bob May in '00 and, last week, Phil Mickelson going head-to-head against David Toms amid a barrage of birdies, eagles and holes in one. Drama like Sunday's used to be the province of the Masters, but the lords of Augusta seem intent on tinkering it away. UP DOWN David Toms Phil Mickelson Laying up Going for broke Paul Azinger Tom Lehman Shingo Katayama Shigeki Maruyama East Lake Atlanta Athletic Club FOURSOMES Q. What do these players have in common? 1. Harry Cooper 2. Bill Melhorn 3. Doug Sanders 4. Macdonald Smith A. They won more Tour events than Phil Mickelson's 19 and never won a major. Cooper won 31 events, Smith 24, Melhorn and Sanders 20 each. NEXT UP PGA: World Golf Championships: NEC Invitational PGA: Reno-Tahoe Open LPGA: First Union Betsy King Classic Senior: AT&T Canada Senior Open Championship European: Scottish PGA Championship INSTANT POLL Will you play a hot driver knowing that it will later be deemed nonconforming? Yes No View Results

The 18th hole at Atlanta Athletic Club in Duluth, Ga., was long. How long? "Too long," muttered Nick Price. "Way too long."

The PGA of America got what it wanted for its championship -- an 18th hole that inspired fear and loathing among the Tour's long hitters. A 490-yard par-4, the hole was longer than a mother-in-law's memory. "It's silly," said Jeff Sluman. "It's a monster," said Grant Waite. "It's one of the hardest finishing holes we've ever played," said Paul Azinger. "C'mon," said David Toms, "it's a par-5."

Officially, the 18th was the second-longest par-4 in the history of the majors, a yard behind the 491-yard 16th at Southern Hills, the site of this year's U.S. Open. In reality, though, Atlanta's 18th, which features bunkers down the right side and a pond on the left that sweeps in front of the green, is the long-distance champion. The 18th played at between 505 and 515 yards. That's right, the first-ever 500-yard par-4 in a major.

"When I played here three weeks ago, one yardage plate on the 18th tee said 475 and another said 505," said Stewart Cink, who lives in Duluth. "The 490 spot is between them. We're playing it back where it said 505, but PGA officials removed the marker. The 18th is the only tee on the course without a yardage plate. There are little squares of sod where the plate used to be. They didn't want anybody to know we're playing the hole at more than 500 yards. They didn't want to look ridiculous."

Members play the hole as a 528-yard par-5 from the back tee, where the yardage marker was still in place last week. The tee box used during the PGA was 26 paces in front of the 528 marker. That would make the hole 502 yards long, not 490, and the tee markers were several steps behind the 502 spot all week.

To prove his point, Cink flipped open his yardage book. "From the back of the tee, if you cut off as much yardage as possible down the left side and stay in the fairway, it's 276 yards to the water," he said. "That leaves 230 yards to the front of the green. Add it up, that's 506. It's another 16 yards to the middle, that's 522. On Friday the tees were up seven yards, so it was 515 to the middle, and that's if you cut off as much as you can down the left. If you don't cut the corner, it's more like 525."

Kerry Haigh of the PGA of America, the senior tournament director who set up the course, shrugged off the missing plates and Cink's evidence that the hole exceeded 500 yards. "Everybody in the field can reach a par-5 under 530 yards in two, so we decided to play it as a par-4," he said. "My aim was to make the players hit a long iron or a wood into a par-4. The most famous photo in golf is Ben Hogan hitting a one-iron to the last hole at Merion, and no one complained about that."

On Sunday, Haigh got his memorable moment when Toms laid up with his second shot, wedged to 10 feet and drained the putt to win. For the week, the 18th ranked as the toughest hole on the course with a 4.40 stroke average, was the most difficult to hit in regulation (46.1%) and yielded almost as many double bogeys or worse as it did birdies (42 to 43). The 18th did not, however, rank as the most difficult par-4 in the majors since 1980. It was the 102nd, well behind the 461-yard 17th at St. Andrews during the 1984 British Open (4.79).

The 18th played a pivotal role on all four days of the tournament. On Saturday, Toms sank a 30-foot birdie putt from the back fringe moments after Shingo Katayama, who either swiped Madonna's hat or was auditioning for the Village People, hit his approach into the water, then watched the ball magically skip over the retaining wall and onto dry land. Katayama saved par. The hole was rarely that forgiving. On Thursday, Loren Roberts dunked his three-wood approach, Hidemichi Tanaka hit two balls into the water and took an 8, and Ernie Els drowned one and made a double that turned a 65 into a 67.

Jerry Pate, whose famous five-iron from the right rough to two feet at 18 won the '76 U.S. Open at Atlanta Athletic Club (the hole played 460 yards then), re-created the shot in the first round. After driving into the water, he took a drop, hit a three-iron to four feet and made the par putt. "I was one over par and said, 'Hell, I'm going to hit this sumbitch at the pin again,'" said Pate, 47. "That was the best shot I've hit in a long time. My son Wesley was caddying for me and said, 'Hey, they don't know this is your hole.'" Pate offered the shot as evidence that the hole had needed lengthening. "I hit a three-iron from 228 yards. Can you believe that?" he said. "I would've hit a three-wood 25 years ago."

Pate hit another three-iron to the green from the same distance in the second round. This one didn't clear the pond and led to a double bogey. "I think I'm going to throw up," Wesley said.

At 18, he was not alone.

Issue date: August 27, 2001

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