JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Just off the 18th fairway at Atlanta Athletic Club, along a small slope and shaded by a tree, there’s a bronze plaque commemorating the spot where Jerry Pate hit his famous 5-iron to clinch an improbable win in the 1976 U.S. Open.

Chances are, there will be another memorable shot Sunday on the final hole of the Highlands Course.

Perhaps it will be something glorious, akin to Pate’s brilliant play more than three decades ago. Or perhaps this will be the place where someone throws away the PGA Championship, which begins Thursday.

“This last hole,” said 2002 PGA champion Rich Beem, shaking his head as he stood behind the 18th green, “you’re going to see some train wrecks here.”

This club north of Atlanta has hosted three previous majors championships, and only once — the 1981 PGA Championship that Larry Nelson won by a comfortable four strokes — has it not come down to the 72nd hole.

The beauty of the 18th is there’s no automatic way to play it. At 507 yards, it’s the second-longest par-4 on the course, a dogleg that bends gently to the left. The shortest way to the flag, of course, is to keep it on the left side of the fairway — but that means flirting with a pond that runs right alongside it. Keep the ball to the right and run the risk of missing the fairway, leaving a tough shot out of the rough or from a bunker that must clear the pond, which widens out to protect the front of the green.

“It’s a great hole,” Steve Stricker said Monday, looking back at the 18th from his perch on a temporary bridge that carries players from the green to the clubhouse. “You’ve got to decide if you’re going to challenge the water, of whether you’re going to leave yourself with a little longer shot.”