1995 77th PGA / RIVIERA : Better to Play It Safe Than Be Sorry : Golf: Trying to reach the green from the tee might be the gutsy thing to do, but on the 10th hole it’s much better to dink than drive.

The 10th hole at Riviera on Saturday was defenseless, inviting the PGA Championship field to come on by and have a birdie three.

Affirmative RSVPs came from 27 players, 25 of whom played the 315-yard hole conservatively, with an iron or fairway wood, left off the tee, over the toothy trap that probably bedevils Riviera members, but is no factor here; short of the trap that keeps ambition in check.

There’s even a target, two palm trees with enough dead-golden fronds among the green ones to make them stand out.

The proper tee shot is 235 yards, setting you up to fire down an alley to a soft, receptive, peanut-shaped green, with the hole at its far end.

“It’s really the only way to play it,” said Duffy Waldorf, who has been hitting balls on No. 10 since he was a teen-ager. “I mean, you’ve only got a wedge left, about 80 yards. You have to hit the wedge straight, but out here we can all probably do that.”

Temptation comes when your ego listens to the dare of driving the green. Phil Mickelson used a driver Friday and hit the ball so far right he needed six more shots to get it in the hole. He is weekending in San Diego.

John Daly took out his driver on Friday, and his gallery cheered. “You didn’t think I would use anything else, did you?” he said, before whacking his drive to Mickelsonville. Four shots later, the ball was in the hole. Two hours later, Daly was also on his way to San Diego.

Still, some try.

On Saturday, Nick Price paused as he was walking off the 10th green, his birdie putt recorded after his 80-yard wedge shot settled 10 feet from the hole.

He looked back at Tom Watson, whose tee shot was youthfully ambitious. Price watched the ball fall 40 yards short of the green, in ankle-deep rough.

“He’s in trouble now,” Price said.

He was. Only Sandy Lyle worked harder for a par on No. 10 than Watson, who pitched from tall grass to tall grass, chipped from tall grass to within inches of the cup and tapped in for his four.

His partner, Loren Roberts, took the three-wood, wedge-to-18-inches, putt route to a birdie.

Lyle just flexed his muscles and drove the ball left of the green. It made a “whap” sound as it brushed the palm fronds before falling 20 yards off the green. Two wedges and a sweaty 20-foot putt later, he had his par.

There were 42 of them Saturday. Lyle’s and Watson’s were the toughest.

Still, ambition could be rewarded, if it was combined with accuracy. Joe Ozaki used a driver to hit the ball two yards short of the green, 287 yards off the tee.

“On the first nine, I was five under [par] and I was high,” said Ozaki, partly through an interpreter and partly with his own broken English. “The adrenaline was flying, so I hit it. But I wasn’t thinking eagle. It’s not an eagle hole. I just wanted to two-putt.”

Instead, he chipped poorly and had to make a 20-foot putt for his birdie. It was the last putt of any consequence he made all day long.

Maybe it’s an international thing. Lyle is from Scotland, Ozaki from Japan. New Zealander Michael Campbell has used a driver on No. 10 all three days, and he and Jay Haas, who plays more conventionally, are the only players with three birdies on the hole.

“I don’t know why, but I just feel comfortable doing it,” Campbell said. “It just feels right.”

On Friday, he left an eagle putt inches from the hole. On Saturday, he hit through the green and had to pitch the ball back and make a 10-footer for his birdie.

His playing partner, Peter Jacobsen, chuckled as he talked about the play. “He’s got the length,” Jacobsen said. “Why shouldn’t he use it? I don’t have the length off the tee or I would hit it.”

Well, maybe not.

“I’ve used a driver on the hole,” Waldorf said. “I do it once every practice round, just to remind me never to do it during a tournament.”