There may be carnage at Calamity Corner, Royal Portrush's brutal but beautiful par 3

USA Today

4 days ago

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland – The name of the hole strikes fear in golfers at the 153rd British Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club. Calamity Corner is the 236-yard, par-3 16th hole, and trouble lurks seemingly everywhere at this amphitheater of dunes forged by years of wind, water and the genius that was designer Harry S. Colt.
'It's pretty intimidating, like, visually,' said J.J. Spaun, winner of the U.S. Open last month. 'Wind dependent can really make it a tough hole. I think just making four pars on that hole, you're going to be gaining strokes on the field. That's why they call it, what, Calamity Corner? There's going to be some calamity there.'
Especially for golfers that miss the green to the right. Those unfortunate souls will be cursing the name Calamity as they search for their ball swallowed by the dense rough at the bottom of the 50-foot-deep ravine. The consequences? A blind shot to a slick green from the thick stuff. On-course data experts ShotScope ran the numbers and found that this lethal combination resulted in players typically carding a bogey or worse 65 percent of the time at 16.
Northern Irishman Darren Clarke, the 2012 Open champion who is a longtime Portrush member, was speaking generally of the course but he might as well have been speaking specifically of Calamity Corner when he said, 'There's no place like it. It's brutal and beautiful – often at the same time.'
Situated at the course's highest point, there is little protection from the wind that blows in from the Atlantic. It relinquished just 24 birdies throughout the 2019 Championship, the fewest of any hole.
A swale left of the green called 'Bobby Locke's Hollow' provides protection to the left side. That bail out is where Locke hit four times when he played here in the 1951 Open. The ball funnels down into a collection area, leaving by no means an easy up and down. A good lie is subject to luck, with tight lies or thick rough wreaking havoc. Somehow, Locke managed to get up and down all four days, so it can be done.
'That's a pretty good aim spot,' said 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell, who grew up as a member at Portrush's sister course, Rathmore Golf Club, of Locke's Hollow. 'Depending on wind direction, you might need a 3-iron. I've hit a driver here before. A brutal hole.'
The charm of the short par 3 usually is celebrated at golf's biggest events but this is the second straight major where a lengthy par-3 has stolen the headlines – at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, the par-3 eighth was stretched to a record of 301 yards on Sunday.
'You can take the 12th at Augusta, you can take the Postage Stamp (last year at Royal Troon), you can take 17 at TPC (Sawgrass). There's so many courses in this world that have short par 3s that can lead to a birdie or lead to a big number. That's what makes the hole a lot more interesting,' said two-time major champion Jon Rahm. 'When you have a hole that the main difficulty is the length, I feel like that variability is just not going to – you're going to see a 3 or 4 for the most part and move on. Mainly because, if you make a 250-yard par-3 with water and crazy bunkers and things like that, it would be a little bit too much, right?'
There was a general consensus that the fearsome test of Calamity Corner had been diluted slightly over the years because of increased hitting distances. So, ahead of the 2019 Open a new back tee was built stretching the hole some 30 yards in length to reinstate its former challenge. [It also shifted from playing as No. 14 to No. 16.] In 2019, Calamity Corner lived up to its billing, playing as the third-hardest hole on the course throughout the week with just 41 percent of players finding the green in regulation, the lowest of any hole. Shane Lowry avoided calamity as he recorded three pars and a birdie on his way to victory.
Irishman Paul McGinley, the former European Ryder Cup captain who now serves as an analyst for Golf Channel and Sky Sports, is a big fan of Colt's designs, which include Swinley Forest in England. 'He gives you options, it gives you strategy.' Of Calamity Corner he added, 'I think what's made it even more fearsome in recent years is the fact that it's now the 16th hole. Now coming up so close to the end of a round, it's a hole you've got to be cautious on.'
That's sound advice, too, for the green, which is 39 yards deep and set diagonally from front left to back right. Finding the putting surface is just half the job. Just ask Rory McIlroy, who hit the green in regulation during his opening round in 2019 before four-putting his way to a double bogey.
It's not called Calamity Corner for nothing, after all.