Pros pick the toughest hole at Leopard Creek

Augusta National has Amen Corner. PGA National has The Bear Trap. And Leopard Creek has what could probably be coined as its own Leopard's Lair.

Holes seven, eight and nine are probably the toughest stretch of holes on this championship golf course. At the heart of it, the 195-yard par-three seventh is quite literally like staring down a charging leopard in the neighbouring Kruger National Park.

"The only reason it's the toughest par three on the golf course is because it should be a par four," says 2016 Alfred Dunhill Championship winner Brandon Stone.

Pablo Larrazabal, the champion in 2019, agrees. "They're all difficult, but number seven is especially difficult. I won the tournament while hitting three balls into the water there. It's a very tough hole."

Dean Burmester says he never fails to stand on the tee at the seventh without thinking of what Ernie Els said about this fearsome hole. "Every time I play the seventh, Ernie Els's words stick in my head. He called it the shortest par four in the world."

Eddie Pepperell is in awe of the hole. "The seventh is a brilliant par three. It's a six iron, and if you don't get it right you're going to make bogey or double bogey."

And 2008 champion Richard Sterne gives a rundown of exactly what goes through a professional's mind when playing the seventh. "Visually, it's a very tough hole and extremely demanding with zero bailout to the right obviously. So a lot of guys try and play left. But your ego gets to you now and then and you think you can take it on, and then it bites you. It's a hole that I think if you can play it in one over par for the week or even two over, you're gaining shots on the field."