It was not surprising that some of the biggest crowds at this weekend’s Travelers Championship near Hartford, CT, gathered around the shortest par 4 on the PGA tour -– and planted themselves there for a few hours. The make or break 15th hole at TPC of River Highlands demands some patience, from spectators and PGA Tour players alike.
The tee box of the 15th sits on a rise almost embedded into the woods, a mere 285 yards from the elevated green. The hole is so short, in fact, that most players eschew the driver, fearful of rolling their tee shots through the green and into a thick, downhill lie beyond, leaving a second shot with basically two choices –- play short for a difficult downhill 20 foot birdie putt, or try to get your chip close to the front left pin and risk too much over-spin that will carry the ball down the slope in front of the green. A recess across the middle of the green just makes the chip -– and any putts from the middle -– that much more problematical.
The 285-yard par 4 15th at TPC River Highlands is the shortest on the PGA tour, a hole where dreams live and die.
All photos by L. J. Gavrich
With a stroke average during the tournament of just 3.68, some contending players on Sunday at The Travelers are scared to death they will only make par at the 15th. A par can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for the tournament leader. (On Sunday, though, eventual victor and front-runner Fredrik Jacobson opted to play for par after a birdie on 14.)
The vexing issue at #15 is that 3-wood is barely enough to reach the green, even for the long hitters, and the tendency is to over-swing in a vain attempt to run the ball down the fairway far enough to make it up the three-foot-high slope at the front of the green. A pull hook can easily reach the lake that encroaches just below the left side of the narrow green. But the water takes a back stage to the trees and tall grasses that line the right side. Last year, Bill Haas was so deep in the weeds that he accepted an unplayable lie and then walked straight up a hill into a condo owner’s backyard to hit his shot to the green –- a good two stories below. This year, a similar fate befell no less than veteran Vijay Singh who took a drop from the weeds into less gnarly weeds five feet further away, made a miraculous weed-whacker of a shot that rolled up the side slope and onto the green 20 feet away, and then just barely missed his par putt.
Vijay Singh needed a weed whacker when he missed the 15th green high and right. He settled for a drop and an eventual bogey on a hole where par loses a fraction of a stroke to the field.
With that large stand of trees covering the entire right side of the hole and the iconic three-acre lake to the left, the wind often blows across the fairway from lake toward trees and then sometimes swirls back toward the tee box. That might have happened to the long-hitting Bubba Watson, who won his first PGA tournament at The Travelers last year. On Sunday, the grip-it-and-always-rip-it Watson came up a good 25 yards short, pitched up and over the slope to two feet and made his birdie putt.
The challenge at the 15th is really all about that green, which is about 90 feet deep, about 35 feet across and sits on a puckered-up piece of land that makes it look a little like a volcano that blew its top. Of the hundreds of pros who had a go at the hole over the four-day event, just eight managed eagles -– and 53 left the green with their shoulders sagging under the weight of bogey or double bogey. You can’t ask for better performance from a par 4 of under 300 yards.
The 15th green at TPC River Highlands is fully elevated. A tee shot left short or right leaves a tough pitch up to a front pin position. A tee shot that rolls through the green could leave an impossible one.
Last year's Travelers champion Bubba Watson left his tee shot about 25 yards short of the green and chipped (top photo) to within two feet, from where he made his birdie putt.