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.
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.
