Els Wins Honda; NBC Announcers Slip In Only Two Million "Bear Trap" References

How about that Bear Trap, the work of PR gurus!

You know I still get trapped trying to figure out which is No. 15 and which is No. 17, but that's another story.

Mercifully, Greg Stoda in the Palm Beach Post explains why some of us spent most of our time watching UCLA-Arizona and the Lakers-Mavs:

Hey, it's as rugged track as re-designer Jack Nicklaus intended it to be. The 15th through 17th holes aren't called the Bear Trap for no reason. And it gets windy in these parts. But what would have been wrong with a couple of more accommodating pin positions late in the test? There simply was never a sense someone would, or could, do something sensational.

And...

There just wasn't an opportunity make a closing rush under pressure. Green's birdies at the 16th and 18th holes don't qualify, and neither does Robert Allenby's finishing birdie that got him a quiet share of fourth place with Jones and Calcavecchia.

They weren't contenders.

The 77-player field managed all of 30 birdies across the final five holes in the fourth round. The field made 25 double- or triple-bogeys across the same stretch. The finishing five holes, in order, ranked as the sixth, third, fourth, first and seventh toughest statistically in the final round.

"You're just trying to make pars," Jones said.

Without question, the most pitiful element of it all is No. 18, potentially a compelling risk-reward hole that is mostly a whole bunch of risk. Would it have killed them to play the tee up today at least? Or has the old tee been bulldozed?