2025 PGA Championship: Could this be the most brutal finishing stretch in golf?

The 17th hole at Quail Hollow

The Green Mile at Quail Hollow: A closer look inside the PGA Championship’s most unforgiving finishing stretch that has tested the nerves of the world’s best golfers.

It all looks so nice and tranquil in the pictures, but what you’re actually looking at is one part of the Green Mile, widely regarded as the most brutal finishing stretch in all of golf. When the PGA Championship last visited Quail Hollow in 2017, the finishing stretch caused chaos.

Ninety-one balls ended up in the water on 16, 17, and 18. Only three players got through the terrible trio unscathed and finished under par for the week. The other 153 players weren’t so lucky. Combined, they contributed 352 bogeys, 88 doubles and 12 triples or worse. Long-time leader Kevin Kisner summed it up well by calling the stretch “just brutal”. Twice over the weekend he threw in double bogeys, first on 16, then on 18, to throw away his chance of victory.

There are other horror stories we could give, which is why so many players have previously grumbled about the set-up being too tough for a PGA Championship. Their complaints have so far fallen on deaf ears, as evidenced by one major change which will make the Green Mile even tougher for this year’s contenders.

And if the 2025 Championship goes the distance, the survivors will have to play the Green Mile all over again in a three-hole aggregate play-off. It could make for a fascinating finish – and one which has the potential to bring the world’s best players to their knees.

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Let’s take a look at the finishing stretch.

Hole 16: 529 yards – Par 4

2024 Wells Fargo Scoring Average: 4.283

A new tee was put in last year, making the 16th just 17 yards shorter than one of the par 5s. The extra 20 yards brings the fairway bunker on the inside bend of the right dog-leg back into play for the longer hitters, who used to carry it with ease. Most players will now be laying back and hitting a long-iron off a sloping lie to a large, near-peninsula green with one bunker right, plus water left and long.

The Player’s View: Max Homa, two-time winner at Quail Hollow

“I’m hopeful now the long guys can’t fly the right bunker, because that was a problem with the old tee. If you could fly it 320, that fairway was double the size and you were hitting way less club in. So you could swing way harder and kind of bail out left and right a little bit. Now, I don’t think anybody can fly it. I think it is one of those rare positive changes of moving a tee that far back and actually continuing to give the long guys an advantage, but kind of making them hit into a similar-width fairway like the rest of us.”

Hole 17: 223 yards – Par 3

2024 Wells Fargo Scoring Average: 3.302

Perception doesn’t quite match the reality. The green looks plenty big enough once you get down there, but the bunker pinches the front right, and the lake wraps around three sides of the green, making the target look tiny from the elevated tee. The popular bail out is to the right side, but that leaves an uphill pitch to a putting surface that slopes away and towards the water. Now you can understand why 26 double bogeys or worse were recorded here last year.

The Player’s View: Rory McIlroy, four-time winner at Quail Hollow

“I think 17 is the most difficult of the closing stretch. Especially off that back tee, you’re raised up and you’ve got that very skinny green. You’re looking down on it and you’ve got the water on your left. There’s a bit of a bail out area on the right. I’d say that’s the only hole that you can sort of play defence on.”

Hole 18: 494 yards – Par 4

2024 Wells Fargo Scoring Average: 4.5

See that creek snaking down the left-hand side? It collects an average of 48 balls per tournament and helped make this the hardest hole on the PGA Tour last year, yielding just 13 birdies from 272 scores. It’s long enough that the pros have to hit driver and thread their ball between the hazard and a steep bunker on the right, with trees beyond. Up by the green, the approach has to tiptoe around a huge false front, two bunkers right, and a central ridge that creates two distinct sections that kick balls off in opposite directions.

Back in 2003, David Toms stepped onto the 18th tee with a six-shot lead and almost threw it away after blocking his tee shot 50 yards right. Though he never went in the water, he still took four shots to reach the green – and then four-putted from 45ft for a quadruple-bogey eight.

“My game plan was to make a birdie and finish off in style,” he said afterwards. “But I went from being in total control and picking my targets to just trying to hang on and finish.”

The Player’s View: Jason Day, winner here in 2018

“There’s no bail out on the hole and you just have to come up with your best. You can’t ease up after a great drive. It’s just one tough hole.”

The yardages at Quail Hollow