U.S. Open Has Makings of a Gem
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott are playing together for the first two rounds of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif. A great pairing. The no. 2 and no. 3 in the world. Mickelson’s showing some excellent form this season with two wins already, and he’s won the Buick Invitational at this course three times. Scott, meanwhile, shot a final round 61 to claim the Qatar Masters on the European Tour in January and won in Dallas several weeks back. Should be exciting to watch.
Now if only … what’s that? Tiger Woods is the third man in the group? Really? Woods and Mickelson playing together for the first time since their epic battle at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston last September? Playing together at the U.S. Open for the first time since 1999’s third round? Playing together on the Southern California course they each played so often as children and teenagers? Absolutely brilliant.
The United States Golf Association invariably gets a lot of stick during U.S. Open week, usually because the players don’t like what it does to the host course. The intention is to set up the course to be as tough as possible — a policy that identifies the best player, according to USGA logic anyway. What occasionally happens instead is that the course gets so close to the edge of what is reasonable that any minor breeze or prolonged period of sunshine that turns the greens brown render it totally unplayable. Luck, which, admittedly, any champion needs a little dose of, ends up playing too great a part.
But every once in a while, the USGA gets things absolutely, profoundly, undeniably right. This is the case this year. Taking the tournament to a municipally owned venue for the second time in six years (in 2002, the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in New York became the first muni to host the U.S. Open) helps make it the people’s championship, as it can’t fail to enhance fans’ appreciation of how good these players are as they get to play the very same course as soon as the professionals leave town. Chambers Bay in Washington state will become the third publicly owned U.S. Open site in 2015, by which time the event will have returned to Bethpage. Giving a facility such as Torrey Pines the opportunity of hosting the U.S. Open is just the right thing to do.
Not changing the South Course’s 18th hole into a long par 4 was the right thing to do, too. The USGA considered this option believing the home hole, a 572-yard par 5, was too easy a closing par for a U.S. Open course. After realizing how much more drama could potentially unfold if the hole remained a risk/reward par 5, however, especially if they shaved the bank between the pond and the putting surface to add an extra level of pressure for the player attempting to find the green in two, the USGA decided to keep it as is.
And putting Woods and Mickelson (and don’t forget Scott) together for the first two rounds virtually guarantees unprecedented Thursday and Friday TV ratings. Though it might cause a few headaches for the poor marshals having to direct gallery traffic and maintain order, the grouping will arouse the interest not only of golf fans in America, but of sports fans around the world. For two days at least, all eyes will be on Torrey Pines.
Woods will be making his first appearance since surgery in April, and one wonders how his knee will withstand the rigors of the longest — 7,643 yards — U.S. Open venue in history. Recent reports suggest he was limping as recently as two weeks ago, but his coach, Hank Haney, assured the press last week that the world no. 1 will be ready to go and certainly won’t be treating this week as a gentle warm-up for the rest of the season. Comparisons have been made, not unexpectedly, between his return to play at the U.S. Open this year and the 2006 championship that came nine weeks after the death of his father. But really, the situations are entirely different. This time, Tiger returns full of energy and enthusiasm, not sorrow and grief. As Haney himself suggested, a far more appropriate comparison would be with his pupil’s return to the game at the start of 2003, when he won the Buick Invitational (the second of his six wins at Torrey Pines) two months after the second of three surgeries he has now had performed on his left knee. Actually, the South Course measured 7,607 yards that year, so perhaps he won’t have too much trouble getting around.
For its first 45 years, Torrey Pines relied heavily on spectacular scenery for its good name. It was never a bad course, but certainly not one worthy of a U.S. Open. After Rees Jones beefed it up considerably in 2001-02, it quickly caught the eye of the USGA. With all that length — including two of the three longest par 4s in U.S. Open history, the 515-yard sixth and 504-yard 12th — 24-33-yard-wide fairways, poa annua greens running 13-13 1/2 on the stimpmeter, and treacherous roughs consisting predominantly of thick-bladed kikuyu grass, it promises to be every bit as tough as Oakmont last year or Winged Foot the year before. Indeed, Torrey Pines’s course rating this week was set at a terrifying 79.7 — 1.4 strokes higher than Oakmont’s. And it’s only going to get tougher if the forecast for warm, dry conditions proves correct and the fairways and greens get increasingly hard to hold. It’s unlikely the course will actually be stretched as far as it can go on any of the four days of competition, but if the par 3 third, 11th, and 16th holes are played from their forward tees as the USGA’s Mike Davis, responsible for course setup, suspects they might be, the shortest it can play is still a mighty 7,541 yards.
The noted Californian botanist Hank Nichol says the Torrey pine, a rare tree that only grows locally, is a stubborn fighter that has to overcome persistent drought, poor soils, storms, and hot summer sun in order to survive. Given how every player this week will inevitably face hard times and that most definitely will not survive the battle with Old Man Par, the description is an apt one.
tonydear71@comcast.net