Jim, IMO, Yes, long is death. The green is raised up significantly when approaching from the rear and the turf back there is not conducive to playing delicate flop shots, regularly. The back of the green slopes to the front and the front slopes to the back. It's just not an easy up and down because it so narrow. I will augment my description of death as making par an elusive feat.
I don't seem to be able to post the schematic or the photo from their website. But, The schematic shows the contour that acts as kick plate and it's bigger than I remembered. While the schematic shows the apron's opening, my memory tells me it's wider than the pic illustrates. To be able to hold this green by attacking any pin, left of the right edge of the fronting bunker, requires hitting an area much smaller than the opening and adjacent kick plate. Players might be thinking 2 here, but anyone with any significant experience on this hole should be happy to walk away with par.
The difference in attempting my advised shot is, if the right bunker is found, that bunker shot is much easier then the other bunker shots around the green because you have the entire length of the green to work with and the other bunkers are much deeper. Again, I wouldn't presume to tell a pro where or how to play the hole, unless asked. (which don't happen) But I can tell you that this hole can and does bite them in the ass (bogey) more times than birdies are carded.
My apologizes for mis-understanding your placement of Pebble amongst those east coast courses. I will admit that the look from the teeing ground is different and not necessarily a world class look. The proximity of OB and the houses doesn't help that either. The bunker well short, on the right side, acts as some sort of deceptive feature because lord knows I've never seen anyone in it. But it does it's job of getting into the players head, even if only subliminally. My contention is that the hole may not look world class but it plays as such since most expect better than they card. The hole has serious mojo and is at the point in the round that turns back towards home. That change is important because of the winds influence. The observant will react accordingly. All others leave the hole scratching their head likely blaming the architecture for their self induced misery. That's what I'm surmising as why it gets such tremendous flack.
Please better articulate why you consider it poor and please do the same on the 14th at merion thread about the mound. Saying you dislike it is fine, but, if you wouldn't mind articulating why, it might help the discussion, or, at least assist others who may have never played the hole understand your thinking?
Here's a pic I found on the web, the 12th is in the lower right corner.
David, I'll state the 12th green at Spy is better than the whole hole. There's just something about that zero plane of the water that makes all these types of holes look similarly flawed.