I debated greatly on whether to reply to this or not, and after reading these comments twice, came to the conclusion that I should, in the hopes that I don't sound foolish. All the advice is spot on, but it all says the same thing, whatever works for you. The pros are at pebble this week, and watching them, some try for birdie, others happy with par. I even Google this hole and found a 24 min long video on how to play it. McCord said that there has been 9s and even an 11, recorded on this hole. At our levels of play,we have all learned that this is simply a game of math, equations for windage, elevation, etc. But sometimes we forget the simplest subtraction problem. That is, good course management minus ego, equals good scoring. All of us are guilty of trying to exceed our abilities, on this hole I have found that by setting my ego for par, I play this hole better. After a par here, I am OK with it, therefore not upset and thus have little chance of allowing my feelings to influence the shots that follow. I have been in good positions for par and found that Birdies started falling, each of us has a hole or two that are our nemesis, mine happens to be the long par 4 at Pinehurst, no matter hard I try to score well there, I get burnt, but by settling for par, I move on, remembering that par never hurt anyone's average, but the dreaded bogey is hard to recover from. I would rather shoot an 8 under par, with a par on this hole, than post a 6 under, cuz I let my ego help me post a double, or even triple bogey. Sometimes trying too hard can be fatal to your score. Good luck.