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SAN DIEGO, California: Tiger Woods could be forgiven for feeling he
owns the Torrey Pines South Course, while Phil Mickelson considers
it his own backyard.
But both expect the familiar landscape to spring
plenty of surprises when the 108th US Open golf championship begins
there Thursday.
Perched along cliffs overlooking the Pacific
Ocean north of San Diego, Torrey Pines will join Bethpage Black as
just the second public course to host the premier championship of
the US Golf Association (USGA).
Woods boasts such an impressive record at Torrey
Pines—dating to his junior days—that even the fact that he
hasn’t played a competitive round since the Masters, after which
he had knee surgery, hardly dims his status as favorite.
In 11 appearances in the PGA Tour’s Buick
Invitational here, Woods has won six times—most recently in
January.
Mickelson, a San Diego native who still lives in
nearby Rancho Santa Fe, has won the Buick Invitational three times.
In the first two rounds, Woods and Mickelson are
paired together with third-ranked Adam Scott, a 27-year-old
Australian among nine players in their 20s with US tour victories
this year.
The pairing underscores the promise of a
Woods-Mickelson duel on a course that both have played since they
were boys.
“I think there is a good chance that we both
may be playing our best come that week,” Mickelson said.
For Woods, the most likely impediment to such a
showdown will be his physical condition in the wake of his long
layoff.
“The main thing right now is keeping my
endurance up,” Woods said two weeks before the tournament.
However, he insisted that the time off had been
less draining than his extended layoff prior to the 2006 US Open,
during which his father died.
The US Open was his first event back, and he
missed the cut—his lone missed cut in a major as a professional.
“This time around is totally different,”
Woods insisted. “Everything in my life is doing great, I’m just
trying to get the leg organized.”
Like Woods, Mickelson says Torrey Pines will
present a vastly different face in June than it does in January,
especially given the USGA’s penchant for a devilishly difficult
course setup.
“I think it’s going to be a great
championship, because the course is so hard as it is,” said
Mickelson, who reckons Torrey Pines is already the toughest course
in the country.”
Woods, whose 13 major championships include just
two US Open triumphs from 2000 and 2002, said he didn’t expect to
be referring to his Buick notes during the Open.
-- AFP
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