ESPN.com - Golf Online - US Open Men 2000 - Hole of the Day -- No. 12

By David Kraft
ESPN Golf Online
Sunday, June 18

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Insulted, maligned and desperately in need of a drink, the 12th hole finally yielded a touch of the historic Sunday afternoon.

12 At A Glance
Avg.	3.349
Rank	4
Eagles	0
Birdies	2
Pars	38
Bogeys	22
Doubles	1
Others	0

After a number of his fellow competitors had slammed the 12th hole, Tiger Woods got to the magic 10-under-par number at the 202-yard par-3.

He did it with one of only two birdies on the hole all day and one of only 16 there all week.

The hole had dished out its share of punishment and absorbed its share of verbal abuse throughout the week. Though only the eighth-hardest hole on the golf course statistically, it extracted 151 bogeys (and 10 scores higher than that) while giving up just 16 birdies.

And it soon became the poster child for the hard, fast, unforgiving U.S. Open-style greens. The players took out their venom on its condition.

"The 12th green could not be any more dead," said John Huston after Saturday's third round. "It's just completely brown all the way around. Hopefully, that's not what they intended."

"I don't know if it's going to survive," said Rocco Mediate. "It's, like, purple now, it's so hard."

Woods didn't seem mind -- at least not on Sunday. He simply hit his tee shot on the green and holed a 20-foot putt, getting to 10-under. Two holes later, he was 12-under.

And No. 12 had the last laugh. It will live forever in the "Greatest Moments in U.S. Open History" videos. Even if it's purple.