The par-3 16th hole at Royal Portrush is one of the hardest on the entire course. At 236 yards and playing uphill, the sheer length of it causes problems (and that’s not even factoring in the wind).
At the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, it played as the third-hardest hole of the week. This year, for the 2025 Open Championship? We’re about to find out.
Golf Channel’s Johnson Wagner dissected the hole during a ‘Live From’ segment on Wednesday, explaining the key bail-out area left of the green and the treacherous miss to the right.
Wagner explained that misses short might funnel right, which usually isn’t terrible. But too far right and the fescue gets thicker and the hill steeper, leaving a difficult uphill pitch to the green. That’s when Johnson threw a ball down the hill, stepped up to the shot and prepared to demonstrate it.
But if you have watched any of Wagner’s segments before, you know this next part is unpredictable.
“You can’t see anything,” he said, as he got his feet comfortable over the ball. “It’s steep. Both guys that played [here that I watched], they couldn’t get their depth perception, they couldn’t pick a good target and both were about 10 to 15 paces right of the hole location. Such a severe upslope. All you are trying to do here is get it on the green.”
Johnson swung and made clean contact.
“Oh god,” he said. “I think I hit it in the grandstand.”
He did. The grandstand was about half full with spectators, and you can hear a few yell and see some scramble out of the way. It’s unclear if the ball hit anyone or just got close; Johnson quickly apologized.
On the ‘Live From’ set, Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley couldn’t help but chuckle.
“That thing came out like a driver didn’t it,” McGinley said. “Like a bullet.”
After the segment, Johnson went up to make sure everyone was OK.
“Well, of all the shots I have hit in my days, I think that one is the most embarrassing,” he said. “I finally had a crowd and I physically scolded it into the grandstand.”
