Short and sweet — and plenty dangerous.

That would be the 10th hole of the Riviera Country Club near Los Angeles, host to this week's Northern Trust Open. Measuring a mere 315 yards, the hole is both alluring and precarious, a docile birdie hole one minute, a brutish, emerald stretch with bogey — or worse — written all over it the next.

"It's just a great, short, strategic hole," Brandt Snedeker said. "We don't see very many like that anymore. You can see a guy easily walk off with bogey one day and feel like he actually stole one because he should have had double. And you can easily walk off with an eagle one day and say, 'Yeah, that's the way you're supposed to play that hole.' You see very few holes that play that dramatically different over the course of a week."

Jack Nicklaus said the 10th is one of the greatest short par-4s in championship golf, one which allowed him more options than any other short par-4 he knew of.

From an elevated tee, the front edge of the green is but an enticing 285-290 yards away. Bobby Jones tried to drive the green when he played in 1930, and the pros are still trying that 80 years later — many with just a 3-wood in their hands.

Four deep bunkers, however, guard the sliver of a putting surface. That's why the safe play off the tee is to hit an iron or fairway wood toward the left side of a wide fairway. That leaves a wedge the player could hit down the length of the green...

On the bag: 315-yard 10th at Riviera long on excitement