Frightful finish: Nos. 16-18 at Quail Hollow as hard as it gets

Of the courses used every year on tour, the Quail Hollow closing stretch over the past three cumulative seasons ranks No. 1 in brutality by nearly a half-shot over the second-toughest, a certain course in Augusta where they give green jackets to the winners.

For those of you who are a little slow on the uptake, here it is in more colloquial, Southern terms: "Them are three good finishing holes," Boo Weekley said.

Every year, the roar and the lore grow. The carnage over the first five years of the tournament, one of the best on tour, has been as memorable as Woods' firing the ball down the fairway in mock defiance.

He chucked. Others upchucked.

Despite the event's short lifespan, each hole has already greatly impacted, if not completely decided, the eventual outcome. The stretch begins with the 16th, a 480-yard par 4 that's stiffer than a new pair of leather spikes.

For one of the few times in his career, as Tiger stumbled on the back nine last year to give the field a decent chance, Steve Stricker stood on the 16th tee with a share of the lead. Roughly 10 minutes later, Stricker had handed it all back. He fanned his tee shot into the trees, punched out, then dumped a wedge into a greenside bunker and made a double-bogey, effectively giving the title back to Woods.

The 17th is one of the more controversial holes on tour, a 217-yard par-3 built on bulkheads and surrounded on three sides by water. In the offseason, the green was more visibly canted from back to front in attempt to keep tee shots from scurrying off the back and into the lake. The casualties have been too numerous to mention.

Most notably, Sergio Garcia began the final round of the 2005 tournament with a six-shot lead, which he had mostly squandered by the time he got to the 17th. He tried to muscle a 7-iron onto the green, found the water, and thus tied an ignominious record for largest blown 54-hole lead in PGA Tour history.

But nobody felt the bite of the 17th more deeply than Mickelson, who in 2005 made three double-bogeys and a bogey -- and somehow finished seventh. Small wonder Peter Jacobsen once sarcastically dubbed the 17th "the world's only driveable par-5."

As players reach the uphill 18th, their work has only begun. At 478 yards, it historically has ranked as the hardest finale on tour. Over five previous incarnations of the tournament, it has never ranked lower than fifth among the toughest 18th holes on the U.S. circuit.

It produces awe even among the survivors, such as David Toms, who made an astounding 8 on the hole in 2003 and still won the inaugural tournament. He chopped the ball back and forth across the fairway in sideways fashion until he'd blown all but two shots of a six-stroke lead. A friend had a T-shirt made that featured an aerial diagram of how Toms played the hole, and it looked like the scratchings of a drunken, dyslexic chicken.

The most dangerous portion of the hole is the creek that borders the left side, perhaps the most treacherous contrivance in golf. It's man-made and fed with circulated water that is pumped throughout the course via underground pipes. It has the effect of a lead pipe aside a player's noggin.

As though Toms' fabled snowman wasn't enough to cement its legend, two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen was squarely in the hunt with Trevor Immelman and eventual winner Jim Furyk in 2006 when he made a 9 on the hole, dropping him all the way into a tie for 10th. Mercifully, because of weather issues and a broadcast that was edited and showed via tape delay, most of the Goose's butchery wasn't on TV. If only the scar tissue were as easily left on the cutting-room floor.

"This golf course is hard," Woods said moments after winning last year. "That 18th hole is one of the hardest we'll face. The fairway is wide, but if you miss it, you're making bogey or worse."

Perhaps Woods picked a good time for knee surgery, after all, since the last three holes at Wachovia could knock the wheels out from under anybody. He can kick up his feet at home and watch the others topple around.

"It's a good finish to a great golf course," Scott said.