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The 16th at Royal Portrush is aptly named Calamity CornerCredit: theopen.com 5<\/p>\n And Woods only needed two words to sum up the dreaded hole at The OpenCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Players have to hit their tee shot over a deep, yawning chasm, a remarkable feature on the Dunluce Links Course.<\/p>\n The fairway bends from left to right, with the green precariously placed in an elevated position right next to a steep drop.<\/p>\n Any shots that are hit to the right of the fairway at the 153rd Open could end up dropping 40 to 50 feet down into thick rough.<\/p>\n Only by avoiding the chasm will Rory McIlroy<\/a>, Scottie Scheffler<\/a> and co. stand a chance of making par on the 236-yard hole. <\/p>\n It means there is a high chance of a ‘calamity’ occurring on the 16th, with it seeing the fewest birdies across four rounds in 2019.<\/p>\n And it certainly has a calamitous reputation among some of golf’s biggest stars who have played it before. <\/p>\n Icon Tiger Woods<\/a> didn’t need many words to give his thoughts on what it’s like to get around the iconic hole.<\/p>\n He simply told the Belfast Telegraph in 2019: “That’s hard.”<\/p>\n Woods has played in 23 Open Championships, winning the major three times, and is an expert at navigating tough links courses. <\/p>\n But even he admitted how tough the 16th at Royal Portrush is. <\/p>\n 5<\/p>\n Woods is a three-time Open champion but admitted how tough Calamity Corner isCredit: Getty 5<\/p>\n Calamity Corner could make or break players’ rounds at Royal PortrushCredit: Getty<\/p>\n Despite his two-word assessment though, the legend did manage to make par twice on it before missing the cut in 2019.<\/p>\n Other golf stars have also given their thoughts on playing the iconic 16th at Portrush after experiencing it.<\/p>\n Jason Day<\/a> joked on how to navigate Calamity corner: “Anything up and to the left – don’t miss it short right – you’re doing ok.”<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Patrick Reed<\/a> said: “It’s definitely set for drama. <\/p>\n “You’ve got to be hitting the ball well because 16 is a brutal par three depending on where the wind is coming from.”<\/p>\n Tony Finau explained: “It’s a great hole. 230 yards with that forced carry on the right-hand side, but the green’s big enough to hit. If you bail out right or left, then you’ve got a tough up and down.”<\/p>\n 5<\/p>\n Woods’ two-word summary to Royal Portush’s Calamity CornerCredit: Getty<\/p>\n The latest batch of stars will embark on their opening round on Thursday, July 17, taking on Calamity Corner for the first time.<\/p>\n Woods isn’t featuring this year as he is likely to remain out for the rest of the season after rupturing his Achilles tendon in March.<\/p>\n But reigning champion Xander Schauffele<\/a>, McIlroy and Scheffler lead a 156-player field heading to Royal Portrush.<\/p>\n All players will have the challenge of the 16th in their minds as they make their way through the course in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n And according to Portrush head professional Gary McNeill, everyone will be fortunate to end Calamity Corner with a par<\/a>.<\/p>\n McNeill said via The Open website: “As the name suggests, it’s a very challenging hole from the Championship tee – 236 yards over a very deep chasm to not a huge target when you’re all the way back there. <\/p>\n ‘Worst hours of my life’ – Golfer disqualified from The Open opens up on day where everything went wrong<\/p>\n “I think every competitor would quite happily take a three in each round. It’s a hole where, if you get it wrong, you can easily run up a double-bogey or worse, particularly if the player pushes it out to the right and doesn’t make the carry across. <\/p>\n “The ball has a tendency to bounce and make its way right down to the base of that chasm and then you’re at the mercy of what lie you get down there and you’re trying to play a shot up a very steep bank to a blind target. <\/p>\n “It has the potential to be a real card-wrecker – most players will kind of aim to the left centre of the green and just try and play up that left-hand side, where you do get a little bit of assistance from the mounding.”<\/p>\n As mentioned, the 2025 Open will get started on Thursday, July 17 and run through until Sunday, July 20.<\/p>\n talkSPORT will have regular updates from Portrush.<\/p>\n To tune in to talkSPORT through the website,\u00a0click HERE for the live stream.<\/a> Listen via the\u00a0talkSPORT app here<\/a>, or on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The iconic Calamity Corner is named so for a very good reason. The par-3 16th hole is Royal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[6900,427,3332,6899,6901,6902,99,6898,6903,6897],"class_list":["post-6480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-calamity-corner","tag-golf","tag-pga-tour","tag-royal-portrush","tag-royal-portrush-hole-16","tag-royal-portrush-par-3-calamity-corner","tag-sports","tag-the-open","tag-the-open-course","tag-tiger-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"And](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/tiger-woods-united-states-walks-918146288.jpg\")
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