If all the changes made to Pebble
Beach in the 81 years since it first opened for play, none was more
drastic than W. Herbert Fowler extending the most famous closing
hole in golf by 170 yards and making it a par 5.
Perhaps it's time to change back.
For sheer beauty, the 535-yard 18th hole at Pebble Beach is
unmatched.
From start to finish, the hole runs along the rugged coast of
Carmel Bay, waves either gently lapping at the shore or pounding
the rocks hard enough to spray salt water across the fairway.
For degree of difficulty, it can leave a lot to be desired.
"You can hit 3-iron, 5-iron, 9-iron. How hard is that?" Paul
Azinger said. "It's not that hard of a hole -- as long as you're
two shots ahead."
Players must decide how much of the Pacific Ocean -- if any --
they want to carry off the tee to a fairway that bends slightly to
the left and is marked by two trees in the middle.
Every now and then, the trees can be a problem.
"I remember Payne Stewart hitting an iron at the Crosby. I
think it's a 2-iron," Tom Watson recalled. "And I said, 'That's
the wrong club.' And he knocks it right up the base of the tree.
Very unlucky."
The second shot -- and this is the problem with the par 5 as a
finishing hole -- is almost always a layup.
Tiger Woods reached the green in two during the 1997 AT&T Pebble
Beach National Pro-Am, but only because he was able to place the
ball in the first cut of rough and had a slightly southerly breeze
behind him.
"Can I reach it? Yeah," Woods said today, two days before the start of the 100th U.S. Open. "I almost went
for it yesterday, but I was underneath the second little tree. If
you have the right wind, you can get there. The north wind, you
have no chance."
With conditions hard and fast in June, there might be a few
players who are willing to give it a try, but not many. And that
eliminates the risk-reward that accompanies most par-5 holes.
The layup is no bargain.
A bunker runs down the left side of the hole for the final 180
yards, and a tree that looms right of the green puts a greater
premium on position.
"You have to be very conscious of where you hit it," David
Duval said.
Still, most of the time the third shot is a wedge or a short
iron to one of the larger green on Pebble Beach. The most demanding
closing holes in championship golf should demand much more than
that.
For unforgettable holes, look no farther than the 18th green at
Pebble Beach.
"It's spectacular," Watson said. "The beauty of this place is
not surpassed by hardly any other place in the world."
Looking for drama? Go back another hole, to the par-3 17th,
where Jack Nicklaus hit the flag with his 1-iron to clinch the 1972
U.S. Open, and where Watson chipped in for birdie 10 years later to
deny Nicklaus an unprecedented fifth U.S. Open title.
Unforgettable finishes are rare on the 18th at Pebble Beach in a
major championship.
Nicklaus made a bogey on the 18th in 1972, but he had a
four-stroke lead and three-putted from 20 feet. Watson made birdie,
but his '82 Open victory was essentially in the bag as soon as he
hit the 18th green -- 3-wood off the tee, 7-iron layup, 9-iron to 15
feet.
Ditto for Tom Kite, who took a two-stroke lead into the closing
hole in 1992, hit the 18th green with a wedge and two-putted for
par.
Riveting stuff.
Why not return the 18th to a par 4? The USGA already converted
the par-5 second hole to a 484-yard par 4, although that was
predicated by the loss of a tree down the left side that altered
the nature of the hole.
There is more history behind making the 18th a par-4.
According to "Pebble Beach Golf Links: The Official History,"
the 18th was originally a 325-yard hole that drew sharp criticism
from the California Golf Association following the 1920 state
amateur as a "woefully poor finishing hole."
Arthur Rose Vincent, a wealthy amateur, determined that enough
fill could be laid over the rocks behind the 17th tee to build a
new tee, which added 35 yards to the hole.
That still didn't completely satisfy the CGA, so Pebble Beach
chairman Samuel Morse invited Fowler in 1921 to devise a solution.
Fowler moved enough dirt to push the green back 170 yards. The 18th
hole became a par 5 by the summer of '22.
And that's where it remains today -- the final stop on the most
spectacular finishing hole in golf, even if it remains the most
anticlimactic.
Perhaps that will change this year. Then, the most famous
finishing hole in golf might be remembered in U.S. Open history for
more than the breathtaking view it provides.
