2010 U.S. OPEN AT PEBBLE BEACH

(06-19) 04:00 PDT Pebble Beach - --

No. 17 at Pebble Beach, the baddest hole at the U.S. Open, is one of only two holes on this course that did not undergo significant alteration since the previous U.S. Open here in 2000.

Reason (from the U.S. Open official program): "It's a classic."

"Classic, my rear end," Ryan Moore might have been thinking Thursday when, attempting to avoid disaster on 17, he had to hang aforementioned body part literally over the edge of a ledge overhanging Carmel Bay, teetering in the wind as he tried to stave off disaster to his scorecard.

Moore's tee shot on the innocent-looking, 208-yard par-3 had sailed over the green and skittered through the adjoining No. 18 tee box, coming to a stop under a little rail fence guarding the cliff. Moore got a free drop no closer to the hole, so the ball was still perched on the edge of that overhang.

As Moore addressed his shot, a marshal raised his arms to request silence from three sharks smacking their lips in the surf 20 feet below. Hey, it could have happened that way.

Moore hit back into a greenside bunker and was thrilled to escape with bogey, dry and alive.

The hole doesn't provide quite that level of adventure for everyone, but the pain-in-the-posterior factor is shared by all. No. 17 was the toughest hole on the course over the first two days. The 156 golfers, playing 312 rounds, carded 25 birdies on 17, 127 pars and 160 bogeys-or-worse.

Open golfers tend to be quite candid when evaluating the "fairness" of any course, and they're giving Pebble Beach high marks. Except for 17, which plays like a carnival midway game: Hey, looks easy! But why can't I win one of those stuffed teddy bears?

"It's extremely difficult," second-round leader Graeme McDowell said Friday. "You know the golf course is very fair. Seventeen is borderline unfair, perhaps. It's one of the greatest holes in world golf. ... I hit 3-iron yesterday over the back. I hit 4-iron today over the back. Not quite sure what to hit there tomorrow - 5 seems like it could be a potential club."

Unless the wind comes up, in which case, you close your eyes and pick a club. The wind was mild at 17 the first two days, but that could change in an instant. If the hawk howls off the water, as it so often does at 17, the already-diabolical hole turns stupid hard.

The hourglass-shaped green is actually two dinky greens, each the size of a cheap-motel swimming pool, connected by a large middle hump borrowed from some miniature golf course.

To have a legitimate birdie chance, you must drop your tee shot into an area below the hole about as big as a king-size mattress. Land on the wrong side of the hourglass green and you'll gladly settle for a three-putt.

You can't roll or bounce your tee shot onto the green because it is fortress-bunkered along the front. Behind the green is nasty rough. Tom Watson says the ideal tee shot is a super-high iron that you hang in the air and parachute softly onto the green.

"I can't hit the ball high enough, as I used to, to have it come down soft," Watson said Friday after bogeying 17 for the second day. "When I won here in '82, I put that ball straight up in the air and I made three birdies on the hole."

Sounds easy enough.

"I don't think I've got that shot," said Ernie Els, who is 3-over-par on 17 and 4-under on the rest of the course. "I've tried twice. ... So we'll try to figure that one out the next couple of days."

Watson loves No. 17. In fact, he's married to it. The defining shot of his career was at 17, in the 1982 U.S. Open. He came to this hole on Sunday tied for the lead with Jack Nicklaus, who was in the clubhouse. Watson's tee shot went long and left, into the deadly high rough. Miraculously, he chipped in and won the Open.

Nicklaus found fame at 17, too. On Sunday of the '72 Open at Pebble, Nicklaus hit a sca-reeming 1-iron into the teeth of a gale. It bounced once, thunked the flagstick and left a 6-inch birdie putt.

So 17 can be fun! But pack a lunch, and your shark repellent.

E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page AA - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle