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The green at No. 15 clings to the edge of a pond, bad news if your tee-ball falls short or strays right. You can chicken out (like I did) and aim left, but that will leave a knee-knocking sand-shot as you try to salvage par.

Despite measuring a ho-hum 179 yards for the pros, this ranked as the ninth-hardest hole on the PGA Tour in 2018.

Next up is No. 16, a Par-4 that doglegs to the right over more wet stuff.

On this day, my playing partner couldn’t have placed his drive much better. And then? Into what our forecaddie guesstimated was a three-club wind, he plopped his approach in the drink.

Fowler has suggested that No. 17 — spanning between 111-190 yards but a heart-thumper from any distance as you try to thread the needle between water and a back bunker — might be the toughest Par-3 on their circuit.

In 2018, it was.

With an average score of 0.553 strokes above par, it was the third-hardest hole at any tour stop last season. Only a pair of 500-and-some-yard Par-4s at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills caused more trouble for the top guns.

In four spins at the Honda Classic, Rory McIlroy mixed a birdie, a par, a triple bogey and a quad on No. 17.

Perfect.

Because if your first attempt — and maybe your mulligan, too — turns out to be alligator bait, well, that’s why you haven’t quit your day-job.

But if you manage to find the short stuff and then drain the putt, it’s a birdie you will be boasting about for a long, long time.

Photo by Courtesy photo

“I don’t care if they make golf balls that go for a thousand yards — ‘The Bear Trap’ will stand the test no matter what the equipment is,” Nicklaus once said. “It’s not about length, it’s about precision. It’s about guts. It’s all about what do you have in your chest that you can finish those holes.”