Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are Torrey Pines’ favorite sons, so it’s no surprise they’re the favorites for the first US Open golf championship ever staged there.
Both expect the familiar landscape to spring plenty of surprises when the 108th US Open golf championship begins today.
The course, perched on cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, received an extensive remodel in 2001 to make it worthy of hosting the Open.
PHOTO: AP
It was lengthened — by some 500 yards — and will play at a whopping 7,643 and par-71.
Once again the US Golf Association will line the fairways with graduated rough, getting deeper the farther from the fairway.
The height of the rough may be relatively benign by US Open standards, but a mix of rye and kikuyu grasses will make for unpredictable lies.
“That’s the tricky part,” Woods said. “We can get lies in that first cut that sit up where literally you can hit driver off of it. But there are some patches where you’re looking more sideways trying to get the ball back to the fairway.”
Mickelson was delighted with what he saw in practice rounds.
“I think it’s the best set-up I’ve ever seen for a US Open,” he said.
Although Mickelson has seen nothing to change his view that Torrey Pines is the hardest course in the country, he said its current guise would reward skill and imagination.
“What I love about this week is that short game will be a factor,” he said. “A skillful player around the greens can get the ball close. I think that having short game be a factor is advantageous to me, gives me a better opportunity to get in contention for the weekend.”
Certainly the course will play firmer, the greens faster, than in January, when the PGA Tour’s Buick Invitational is held.
Woods and Mickelson have won the Buick nine times between them, but said the course this week will bear little resemblance to the one where Woods earned an eight-stroke victory earlier this year.
“Some of the putts have a lot more swing at the end,” Woods said. “They’re rolling out a little bit more, up and over ridges.”
The USGA underscored the promise of a Woods-Mickelson duel by pairing the superstars together in the first two rounds, along with world No.3 Adam Scott.
Scott leads an Australian contingent that also includes 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy.
For Woods, the most likely impediment to such a showdown appears to be his physical condition in the wake of an injury layoff of nearly nine weeks following post-Masters knee surgery.
Woods admitted on Tuesday that his knee was still a bit sore, but he vowed to be ready come today.
Defending champion Angel Cabrera is hoping he can sort out putting woes.
“I’m having a rough time on my putting right now,” the Argentine admitted on Tuesday. “I have two putters, the one that I used last year at Oakmont and a new one. The one that feels best I’m going to play on Thursday.”
Cabrera will be battling history as he tries to defend the title. The last repeat champion was Curtis Strange in 1989.
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