Rebecca Droke, Post-Gazette photos One of the fairway bunkers on Hole 17 at Oakmont Country Club.

By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It is short but diabolical; tempting but solicitous. It can beguile and tease but, make no mistake, it can torment and debilitate.

Ask Phil Rodgers what he thinks of the 17^th hole at Oakmont Country Club, the shortest par 4 on the course. He took a couple of baseball whacks at his ball when it was stuck in a small pine tree on the left side of the fairway in 1963, costing him a spot in a playoff with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette
	Steve Marino hits out of a deep bunker surrounding the 17th green at Oakmont Monday in a practice round for the U.S. Open. Click photo for larger image. More on the story Interactive map to Oakmont Country Club and surrounding area Your Guide to the U.S. Open

Ben Hogan drove the green when he won the U.S. Open in 1952. So did Palmer in '62, making eagle. Nicklaus did it twice, in '62 and 1973. Ernie Els didn't drive the green -- he missed it badly to the left -- but he was given a fortuitous, albeit incorrect, drop from the grandstand in the final round of the 1994 U.S. Open, allowing him to salvage par.

"I liked the hole originally," Nicklaus said. "I never liked that they changed it. The reason I liked it is, you did have the opportunity to take a gamble and go at it. When they changed it, you didn't have the opportunity. Now, maybe they changed it again."

The hole has changed slightly since Nicklaus last played a competitive round at Oakmont. The trees on the left side of the fairway -- the ones that led to Rodgers' quadruple-bogey 8 in the first round -- have been removed, replaced with deep rough and a bunker complex that is as deep as it is daunting.

The evergreens that served as a backdrop behind the green have also been removed, giving golfers the illusion of trying to make a three-point shot without a backboard.

"You kind of lose your depth perception there," said Rory Sabbatini, winner of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial two weeks ago.

But, one thing hasn't changed. When the weekend comes at Oakmont, when the pressure of the Open championship amps to another level on Sunday, No. 17 likely will be the hole that determines the champion, just as it always seems to do when a major championship is held at Oakmont.

The hole is 313 yards -- 25 yards longer than the par-3 eighth -- but it probably will loom larger than any other on the course.

"It's a pretty neat hole," Tiger Woods said. "You can take a cut at it. It's a hole that's probably going to be pivotal and very key to who wins the championship."

Woods will be one of the players who will try to drive the green, using either driver or 3-wood, depending on the wind. So will Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia, among others

Other players, such as Masters champ Zach Johnson and Ian Poulter of England, will lay up with a 3-iron or 4-iron, leaving themselves a delicate 80- or 90-yard shot to a green that has the same amount of landing room as, say, a garbage-can lid.

"I'll probably hit 4-iron and leave it a bit farther back," Poulter said.

"If I hit driver, it would have to be the perfect wind conditions," said Johnson, who didn't let his lack of length keep him from winning at Augusta National, which plays nearly 300 yards longer than Oakmont. "And it would have to be a good pin placement, meaning probably closer to the back of the green. But, for the most part, my game plan is to try and wedge it close."

That is no bargain, either.

"I feel it's a pretty tough wedge shot anyway," said Scott, the No. 4 player in the world. "If you lay up and miss the fairway, there is no wedge shot. You have to chip it out. I'll be happy to have a go at 17 and take my chances."

Indeed, the lay-up landing area at the 17^th is probably the smallest on the course. Misfire even slightly with an iron and players will not be able to attempt shots to the green because the surface, which is slightly crowned, is difficult to hold.

That's why most players won't try to drive the green as much as they will try to land their tee shots in the rough, left of the green. They will take their chances from there.

"Driver will definitely be the play for me at 17," said Phil Mickelson, who has four second-place finishes -- and no victories -- in the U.S. Open. "It takes five out of play if you can hit driver in the left rough."

But if the pin at No. 17 is in the back-right portion of the green, Mickelson said he will intentionally drive the ball into Bigmouth, the yawning 10-foot deep sand bunker that fronts the putting surface.

"It's pretty difficult to hit on the green in one because the little bit of fairway you do have kind of runs sideways to you," Garcia said. "You know, just to the left, is not a bad play. You're playing straight into the green. It's still not an easy chip because you're playing from thick rough.

"If it gets firm, it's quite difficult to lay up and hit a lob wedge and be able to stop it because you're hitting on a bad angle into the green. It gives you a couple different options."

Risk or reward is too simplistic. At No. 17, it's more like rejoice or regret.

Gerry Dulac can be reached at gdulac@post-gazette.com.