Tom,
Agreed on the last point, but I've always felt like that hole doesn't really let you play too safe because the green is so well defended on both sides in a pick your poison kind of way. So maybe they would play the safe shot more often, but that would lead to much longer approach shots into a difficult green.
As it is now, it seems a lot of pros hit a baby draw 3w up the right hand side, with little risk of going into the water and then have no more than 8 or 9 iron into that green.
P.S. And just to clarify on one point, this new tee would just be for The Players and/or other top notch am tournies.