In the first three rounds, a sand wedge was usually enough club.

The weather went from benign to brutal on the final day of the 1992 U.S. Open, though. Winds howling off the Pacific Ocean were clocked in the 40-mph range, and that seventh hole, a wisp of a par-3, was clearly in Mother Nature's cross-hairs.

The tee is elevated, with the tiny green a mere 106 yards in the distance, completely exposed to the elements on that ragged bluff of land. The putting surface, which is just over 20 yards deep, is well-guarded by bunkers as waves crash against the rocks below to heighten the drama.

Noted golf course architect Pete Dye once said he likely would have missed the hole if he'd been walking the stunning property hugging Stillwater Cove before the routing was done. Jack Nicklaus, the game's greatest player turned accomplished designer, told Golf Digest he probably would have done the same thing "because it wouldn't look like there's room enough for a hole."

On that Sunday at Pebble Beach, though, the seventh hole, the shortest on the PGA TOUR, certainly commanded plenty of attention. The key was to find a club that would stay low and bore through that wall of wind, hopefully finding the green and not the rocks or the water, in the process.

Tom Kite, who honed his game in Texas, chose a 6-iron. His ball landed in the left rough -- only two players in the final 10 groups hit the green -- but he managed to hole a lob wedge for one of just five birdies made there that Sunday.

"I was almost in shock when it went in, and my initial reaction was to jump up and down," Kite was quoted as saying at the time. "The reality was I had so many more big shots left, but it got everything started."

Indeed. Kite, who started the day one stroke behind Gil Morgan, would go on to win his only major that afternoon. He shot 72 to beat Jeff Sluman by two on a day when only four players broke par -- and the scoring average was a whopping 77.27.

Legend has it that Sam Snead once putted down the hill at the seventh hole to outsmart the wind during the star-studded event once hosted by crooner Bing Crosby. No word on whether Snead used a conventional, croquet-style or sidesaddle stroke.

At the same time, there have been 16 aces at the seventh hole. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback John Brodie made the first while playing as an amateur in 1959. TOUR player Mike Heinen made the most recent in 2003. Former UCLA golf coach Eddie Merrins needed a 3-iron for his 1965 hole-in-one so you can imagine the conditions.

Fortunately, though, completely over-the-top days like that Sunday in 1992 are the exception and not the rule at Pebble Beach. And the seventh hole is one of the most photographed in the world, one that Ben Crane calls "arguably the greatest little hole in golf."

"The view is a little distracting, right?" he said with a smile. Guess that's why so many men -- including actor John O'Hurley -- have chosen the seventh hole for marriage proposals. CBS announcer Jim Nantz was even married at the hole.

"It's amazing how you can stand up on a sand wedge par-3 with no wind and be nervous," Johnson Wagner said. "You're kind of in awe of the situation of where you are."