TULSA, Okla. — Southern Hills’ wrapping up stretch is a meat mill.

The longer par-4 16th is playing. four strokes over par for those week, making it the third-hardest hole on property, along with the par-4 18th is additional daunting. Playing to an standard of nearly. 4 strokes over par, the behemoth of a hole has yielded almost as many double bogeys (12) as it has birdies (14) over the first several days.

Anyone who leaves Tulsa with the Wanamaker Trophy in tow line will have earned it.

But while Southern Hills’ finishing three-hole stretch will be bookended by a pair of giants, there is a sliver of option sandwiched in between. Enter the brief, drivable par-4 17th.

Typically the 17th represents a liberation. Long-bombing tee shots are not a requirement at the penultimate hole. Rather, precision together with touch will be the name of the game.

The scorecard listings 371 yards of turf between the tee and the placing surface at 17, however the actual yardage for the remaining round will be much lower. Inside Round 3, the PGA of America utilized a new forward tee box, and therefore box is in play once again on Sunday.

The forward box available at chops some 70 meters off the yardage, and with the idea adds the possibility for some late-round fireworks.

Take on what we saw in Rounded 3, for example.

The forward box, along with a favorable northern wind, feasible every player in the field will make a run at the environment friendly off the tee on Saturday. But the short yardage didn’t get hitting the green with a first tee ball a sure bet — far from it, in fact. With the 78 players who produced a run at the environmentally friendly, just seven of them really found the putting exterior, and just three converted needed for eagle.

One of many men who carded hershey bar finds himself in the top five heading into Sunday. Cameron j. Young, a PGA Tournament rookie, began to fall off your pace during his right back nine in Round 4. And coming off a good bogey at the 16th, he / she knew he needed a thing special to keep the emperors in sight. He pulled five wood on the 17th first tee and took dead fix the green. His ball arrived at rest 24 feet from the cup, and moments afterward, he rolled in his putt for eagle.

“The eagle came up at a really nice time, ” Young said. “Just going to a solid shot there in 17 and kind of provide yourself what should be a rather easy birdie was push enough, and for that putt to go in is a huge extra. ”

Developing is four back of Favola Pereira’s lead heading in the final round.

Like any good risk-reward location, though, there is plenty of difficulty lurking. Short of the green a bit of 30 yards sits your meandering creek ready to gobble up any wayward motoring. Beyond that, a triada of bunkers surround the exact kidney-bean shaped putting surface area.

“You could quite possibly see some very difficult treatment shots around this green, ” explained GOLF Top 100 Curriculums panelist Adam Messix.

On Weekend, players will be once again come to be faced with the decision to either lay up or go for the green. And the execution will often decide the championship.

Golf. com Editor tool

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor to GOLF. com where he uses his days blogging, leading to and editing. Prior to signing up with the team at GOLF. contendo, he attended the Collage of Texas followed by ends with Team USA, saving money Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists relating to all things instruction and comforters amateur and women’s actively playing golf.