Sizing up the Cricket Club’s last four holes, which are likely to decide the Truist Championship

The situation might be this for a PGA Tour player this Sunday at the Truist Championship: Arrive at the 14th hole at the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course, a delicate par 3, facing a multishot deficit with hope and fear, golf’s great opposite emotions.

Hope because No. 14 is a birdie hole. It will play in the 120-yard range and give golfers a chance to put themselves in position to ride the wave of the closing four holes that feature three of the four hardest holes the course has to offer with a birdie under their belt.

Here’s a look at the deciding shots, and holes, that will likely determine the winner on Sunday.

(Note: The Wissahickon course has been rerouted for the event. The first hole this week is Wissahickon’s normal eighth hole. The course takes the players from there, all the way around and through the normal third hole, setting up a four-hole finish where holes 15-16-17-18 are, in order, the normal course’s seventh, fifth, sixth, and fourth holes.)

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The 553-yard par 5’s difficulty probably will depend on the wind. If the wind is in a player’s face, the normal direction, it might actually be to his benefit. He may be able to hit driver in that instance. If not, he’s probably laying back with a wood to avoid the carnage that is “Hell’s Half Acre,” otherwise known as A.W. Tillinghast’s “Great Hazard,” a medley of bunkers and fescue that cut through the fairway 320-plus yards from the tee.

Regardless of the wind, 15 will be a big-time birdie opportunity. It may be reachable in two, but the second shot could be 230 yards off a downslope into a small green.

“It‘s doable, but it ain’t easy,” said Jim Smith Jr., Cricket’s director of golf.

So you’ve gotten through Nos. 14 and 15, and maybe you’ve made up a few shots …

“You play these two and then you hold on for dear life,” Smith said.

It‘s worth noting here that the caveat to all of this is if the weather forecast for rain late in the day Thursday and much of the day Friday proves true, the course, at least through the first three rounds, is going to play soft and fairly easy.

The 215-yard 16th hole is a good example. There was Jordan Spieth during Tuesday’s practice round, flushing an iron shot through little wind resistance into a middle pin after a light rainstorm. It stuck and left him a few feet for birdie.

There’s some trouble here, as Gary Woodland showed in that same practice grouping. He left his shot out to the right and missed the green. The perfect Sunday pin will be front-right, and misses to the right side will make it nearly impossible to get your second shot close. Misses to the left, meanwhile, will leave a difficult two-putt should the tee shot find a piece of the green, which has two shelves.

Wind will be a factor, too. It‘s usually blowing at the golfer, and if that’s the case into a front pin, an errant shot that balloons in the air might even find Lorraine Run, a stream that runs through the course.

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One of the hardest par 4s on the course greets you after you finish up on that difficult par 3.

It’s visually intimidating from the tee box. It‘s not terribly long for the pros at 498 yards, but the second shot is uphill, and an accurate tee shot is paramount. Seventeen, which normally plays downwind, will offer a risk-reward. It‘s about 290 yards to carry the bunker on the right to set up a much easier approach.

Miss into the bunker on the left, and you’re going to find hitting the green in two quite difficult.

An uphill shot downwind will make for a tester of an approach to another multilevel green.

The closing hole is a par 4, 517 yards, and usually plays into the wind. The tee shot here is key. There’s normally a bailout opportunity if you miss the fairway left, but a temporary structure takes that play, and that ideal angle avoiding bunkers into a tight green, out of the bag.

Miss the fairway to the right, and you’ll be dealing with rough that grows into you and, by nature of the angling of the hole, adds about 15 yards to the second shot, which will need to fly over some bunkers into a green that slopes right to left.

The best play will be to hit the fairway down the left side to leave about 200 yards to the flag. The green is guarded, and it will make for some high drama should Sunday’s final round come down to the wire.

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“It’s almost like missing it in that big bunker at PGA West [in California],” Smith said. “It’s just hard to get it up and down, and the green is nasty.”