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Chrysler: The 19th hole

HOLE OF THE DAY

No. 6

Par 4, 465 yards

While No. 16 is the big, bad bear of Copperhead, No. 6 is like, well, a copperhead. Quiet, sneaky and plenty poisonous.

The narrow par 4 doesn't get tricky until players get around the green, and that's when it strikes. No hole played tougher Friday. (Yep, it was even tougher than 16.)

Golfers averaged 4.477 shots on a hole that yielded 11 birdies and 60 pars. Meantime there were 48 bogeys, eight double bogeys and three of the dreaded "others."

Those belonged to R.J. Choi, Ben Crane and Glen Day. All took triple-bogey 7. Choi hit his second shot out of bounds, and Crane and Day had fits trying to get up and down out of the rough.

Even the players with the hot hand had trouble.

"I hit every green on the front except No. 6," said Dan Forsman, who shot 67, two off the best round of the day.

Charles Howell, who was tied for fourth, made one bogey on the front nine. Where? No. 6.

Sometimes - and hackers everywhere know this - golf is for the birds. On Friday, though, it was for the squirrels. Frank Lickliter can attest to that.

Lickliter was on No. 14, lining up his third shot 145 yards from the hole.

He hit a perfect approach. The ball bounced on the front edge of the green and started rolling toward the hole. And - boom! - out of nowhere came a squirrel. The bushy-tailed rascal raced across the green and acted like a dog chasing a tennis ball. He stopped Lickliter's ball 20 feet from the hole before scampering into the woods.

Lickliter shook off the rude interruption and coolly drained the 20-footer for birdie.

Alas, it didn't matter. Lickliter missed the cut.

- Compiled by Tom Jones.