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Updated: August 14, 2006, 6:09 PM ET

Medinah's 17th, Act IV

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By Ron Whitten
Golf Digest
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It's golf's equivalent of three-card monte. Guess where Medinah's par-3 17th will be this time around. Over here? Over there? On the water? Up my sleeve? Players in the PGA Championship Aug. 17-20 at Medinah Country Club, 28 miles west of Chicago, will face a different 17th hole than they saw just seven years ago in the 1999 PGA. But that's nothing new. In four of the five major championships contested on Medinah's No. 3 Course, the 17th has been a completely different hole, and it will be again for the fourth time in a row dating to the 1975 U.S. Open. Each version has been designed by a different golf architect.

All that fiddling has left some Medinah members frustrated, but it has done nothing to tarnish Medinah No. 3's critical reputation. It's ranked by Golf Digest at 15th among America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses, and it has been out of the Top 20 only once since our biennial ranking of the nation's Top 100 began in 1969.

So why mess with success? To keep attracting majors, that's why. In the beginning, No. 3's 17th was a formidable 220 yards over an arm of Lake Kadijah to a shallow, steeply sloped green, part of Tom Bendelow's original 1928 design. It was still the penultimate hole at the 1975 U.S. Open, but by then, the green was so severe that only front pin placements could be used. For many competitors, the hole was a deal breaker. Tied for the lead with two holes to play in that '75 Open, Ben Crenshaw hit short into the water and took a double-bogey. Third-round leader Frank Beard bogeyed it Sunday. Both finished one shot out of the playoff won by Lou Graham over John Mahaffey.

After that championship, the U.S. Golf Association told Medinah officials they had a decent 17th but a horrible par-4 18th that needed fixing if they ever wanted another Open. "I locked the doors and wouldn't let anybody out until we got enough votes," Les Klenk, club president at the time, later joked. (Truth is, Klenk locked out some dissenters after the remodeling initially was voted down.) Architect Roger Packard created a whole new 18th (the present closing hole) and a new par-3 17th to get to it. The old 17th became today's 13th.

Packard's 17th was a downhill 168 yards over the same neck of lake, but 300 yards west. The green was placed right on the water's edge, fronted by a corrugated and corroded steel bulkhead. As if to imitate the previous 17th, Packard's green was just as steep and shallow, so steep that in the 1990 U.S. Open, only one front hole location was used all week. The hole produced some drama that year. In the third round, Curtis Strange holed a 20-foot putt that broke eight feet to move him within two shots of the lead, but he never got closer in his quest for a third straight Open title. In the last round, Billy Ray Brown nearly aced the hole but finished one stroke shy of the playoff won by Hale Irwin over Mike Donald.

After the club was awarded the 1999 PGA, some members wanted the green softened and a few wanted it removed from the waterfront entirely, arguing it was too similar to the 13th as well as the second, which also plays over Lake Kadijah. Architect Roger Rulewich was instructed to create a longer 17th in the image of the famous, nasty par-3 fifth at Pine Valley. So Rulewich cleared out trees and placed the green atop a hillside above the previous green, pushing the 17th to 206 yards.

It proved to be a yawner in 1999. Four years later, when architect Rees Jones was hired to remodel the entire course, he told 300 members that he envisioned a 17th that would nag at good players from the start of a round. To do that, he said, the green needed to be back down on the lake. The crowd erupted in cheers.

Jones carved out the hillside behind the green to provide a much flatter putting surface. By benching in a new back tee in a hilltop, he managed to retain most of the length Rulewich had added. The hole will measure 197 yards for this year's PGA, but given today's technology, the clubs hit will be the same as those used in 1990.

Four majors, four different holes, but Medinah officials insist their newest version of the 17th hole is here to stay, come hell or high water. To ensure that, the board of directors voted to make no further changes to the course without Jones' approval and involvement. Of course, if the high-water thing ever occurred, it's a good bet Jones would want to move the green. But barring a flood, we'll be seeing Medinah's latest 17th not only splash the hopes of a player or two in this year's PGA but also mess with some matches in the 2012 Ryder Cup, the next major event scheduled for Medinah.

Ron Whitten is a senior editor for Golf Digest magazine.