Talking About the US Open
Stenson plays a practice round at Torrey Pines.
It’s never really too early to start talking about the US Open, after all, we are only 171 days, less than half a year away. The site of the 2008 US Open is Torrey Pines, normally a municipal course in sunny San Diego.
Henrik Stenson decided to take a detour last week following the Tiger hosted Target World Challenge which he competed in. Torrey Pines is also host to the Buick Invitational played every year in January, but Stenson already has plans to be in the middle east as part of the European Tour so he decided it would be a good idea to get a round in at Torrey Pines before he comes back in June. It was the first time in ten years that Stenson had payed a green fee and payed for regular range balls, you know the ones with the black stripe. Get this, he was paired for the round with someone named Pamela Anderson, except it was not the same Pam we know, just the same name.
Though Stenson got to get a good round in, the conditions will be dramatically different when the US Open rolls around. If you’ve never been to a PGA Tour event you know that the course is setup way different than it would be if you or I played on it, and that’s just a regular PGA Tour event. The US Open is like a regular PGA Tour event times 100. They always make the pin placements harder, the greens much faster and rough much thicker. I wrote earlier how Steve Marino played with a writer at a local municipal course who managed to finish under par.
Along the same lines, when Tiger said that he thought it would be nearly impossible for a 10 handicap to break a hundred in a US Open setup course will get a chance to see if he is right. At Torrey Pines, six days before the US Open, three celebrities and a Joe Hack will get their opportunity, on TV no less, to see if they can break one hundred. I’m with Tiger on this one, I doubt it will happen.
Henrick Stenson, US Open, Torrey Pines
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