KAPALUA, Maui — These foothills weren't meant for walking.

Even if you're one of the young guns on the PGA Tour hiking the hilly Plantation Course in the West Maui Mountains. Or 47-year-old Mark Calcavecchia, who's a few birthdays shy of playing on the senior tour. Or Fred Funk, who's actually on the Champions Tour.

And if you're a 9-year-old like Bobbi Maria Stricker, forget about it. Even if your dad's name is on the leaderboard going into today's final round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

"They see me walk down the last hole and that's about it. I can't blame them," said the youngster's understanding father, Steve Stricker. "The course is hard enough to walk as it is. You know, it's nice enough that they just come out for that last half a hole to see me finish, I guess."

No question, it's the most difficult golf course to walk on the PGA Tour, now that Castle Pines, site of the International, is no longer on the schedule.

"Castle Pines might have been harder, just because of its elevation," said Stricker, the tour's 2007 comeback player of the year. Without question, the honors now belong to the Plantation Course, he said.

"Probably, I'd go with that," said Jim Furyk, who probably has trekked the golf course more than anyone else here, having won twice at the Plantation Course, including the 2001 Mercedes Championship.

"I've never played Tahoe, but this could be it," said Vijay Singh, the defending champion, who's tied for 10th, five strokes behind leader Mike Weir.

"Brutal, very difficult," says Masters champion Zach Johnson, a second-time visitor. "It's a resort course. It's not designed for walking. That's why they shuttle us."

Because of the extreme length from green to tee — the fifth green is nearly one-half mile to the sixth tee on the next plateau — the players get to ride a golf cart to the sixth and eighth greens and to the 10th tee when making the turn. And in a special dispensation that would make Casey Martin happy, at the uphill par-4 fourth, the 31 players in the winners-only field get ferried to where their tee shots end up on the fairway.

There's a reason why carts are allowed there, especially at the par-3 eighth, according to Singh.

"You can easily get hurt, walking down that hill (to the green)," he said.

There were no mishaps there, only hurt feelings, as the testy hole with an elevated tee to the green across a ravine played as the most difficult for the third day in a row with a scoring average of 3.065.

According to Johnson, some of the fairways at the Augusta National can be uphill climbs, especially No. 10 and No. 18, but it's nothing like the Plantation Course.

Calcavecchia, a 26-year veteran who's coming off his career best season with $2.99 million in earnings, said he even trained to strengthen his legs by hiking up a mountain in Phoenix before coming here.

The training helped, but what didn't help was that he three-putted to bogey both par-5s on the back nine.

Funk, the other elder statesman, was asked how he was holding up.

"You get used to it," he said.

But he had the look of someone who couldn't wait to get to the flatter playing fields of Waialae, Hualalai and Turtle Bay's Palmer Course in coming weeks.