Associated Press
Thursday, June 5, 2008
2:12 PM
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- It might be the quintessential San Diego sporting experience, one that's as familiar to Lefty and Tiger as it is to the worst hacker who's ever set foot on the property.
When golfers reach the par-3 third hole on the South Course at Torrey Pines, tony La Jolla is off to the left, the Pacific Ocean is straight ahead, and, more often than not, a hang glider is floating silently overhead.
Out of sight down the bluffs, but certainly not out of everyone's mind, are people in the buff at Black's Beach.
A salty sea breeze blows ashore. Sometimes, fog hugs the cliffs.
"That's where you feel the elements, where you see the ocean," said Joe DeBock, the head pro at Torrey Pines.
The soul of San Diego's golf heritage will become the first city-owned golf course to host a U.S. Open starting next Thursday.
It will be San Diego's first major, and just the second time the national championship has been played in Southern California in 60 years.
San Diego's civic pride has taken numerous hits over the past decade, its image tarnished by City Hall corruption and bribery scandals and a billion-dollar pension crisis.
Somehow, the city's golf-loving movers and shakers -- with a big tip of the cap to New York's Bethpage Black -- managed to get the USGA to award the Open to Torrey Pines.
Not bad for a municipal course that has occupied its breathtaking clifftop setting longer than the Chargers and Padres have been playing in San Diego. But this muni doesn't fit the stereotype of being a bit run down.
"I grew up there. That's my home," said Pat Perez, who made it through a U.S. Open qualifier. "That's everything. I've been thinking about that ever since they came out with it."
Some San Diego-raised pro golfers, such as Perez and Phil "Lefty" Mickelson, practically grew up at Torrey Pines. Others, including 1987 U.S. Open winner Scott Simpson, had different home courses but played tournaments at Torrey.
Billy Casper, who won the U.S. Open in 1959 at Winged Foot and in 1966 at San Francisco's Olympic Club, was once hired by the city to rebuild Torrey's greens.
"What a jewel we have here," Casper said during a recent visit to his hometown.
William Bell turned a former Navy training base into the North and South courses, which opened in 1957. Torrey Pines was named after the rare coastal trees that are gnarled into spectacular shapes.
"I don't know if it was foresight or luck, but, I mean, how fortunate for us and people who love the game and love to be outdoors that someone was smart enough to do that back in the '50s," said attorney Jay Rains, the man most responsible for bringing the Open here. "Because if you had that land sitting there unused today, the chances of getting a public golf course built on it would be pretty small."
A 20-minute drive from downtown, Torrey Pines is synonymous with golf in San Diego. It's usually the course out-of-towners want to play.
"A lot of people around here who grew up playing out there have fond memories of dragging their bag behind them on a cart, which I think makes this Open that much more special," said Rains, the vice president of the USGA executive committee. "It's not just that it's in your hometown, it's not just it's a golf course that you can play, but it's a golf course that I think spiritually means a lot to people around here.
"For Pat or for Phil, they dragged their own bag around there when they were 12 years old. I think that's a very cool thing. For Phil Mickelson to step up on the tee on a golf course he's played since he was a kid, and play for his national championship, has got to be pretty special."
Rains got the idea for an Open at Torrey Pines in the late 1990s after the USGA awarded the 2002 Open to Bethpage Black, which is state-owned.
To get the already-tough South Course up to Open standards, a group called Friends of Torrey Pines helped raise $3.5 million to have Rees Jones, the so-called "U.S. Open Doctor," lengthen the course, redo the greens and add bunkers. The gamble paid off in 2002 when the USGA awarded this Open to Torrey Pines.
"It was a good, strong golf course before they redid it, and now it's a monster," Casper said.
The scorecard will read par 71, 7,643 yards, the longest in U.S. Open history. But USGA officials say it will actually play between 7,400 and 7,500 yards because they'll switch up the tee boxes every day.
"We all loved to play Torrey because it was a fun, hard test of golf," Mickelson said. "We used to dread it a little bit because we would finish on No. 9 and then you would have to walk back the length of two par-5s."
Mickelson has won his hometown PGA tournament, the Buick Invitational, three times. Tiger Woods has won it six times. Although Woods is originally from up the freeway in Cypress, he's been dominating at Torrey Pines since he was known by his given name, Eldrick, and playing in the Junior World Golf Championships.
Perez worked and played at Torrey Pines as a teenager. He was part of the "Dawn Patrol," the hard-core golfers who show up in the middle of the night to claim a spot in line for one of the first-come, first-served spots available before reserved tee times kicked in.
"Every single day I'd be there," he said. "I'd sleep in the parking lot to be able to play in the morning. You had to get out early. The pro shop doesn't open until 6 and the first (tee) time was 6:24. I'd get there with my coach, about 2, we'd sleep for a couple of hours, get breakfast and tee off. Then I'd work in the afternoon. That was the best deal in town. You could play for $20."
The city has mandated that 70 percent of tee times go to residents.
The South Course will reopen June 19. Walking rates for city residents are $42 Mondays through Thursdays and $49 on weekends. Nonresidents pay $145 and $181. After July 1, residents will pay $43 and $49, while nonresidents will pay $160 and $200.
The North Course is easier and a little more scenic, but it won't be open for 18-hole play until sometime around Sept. 1. Part of it has been turned into a tent city for corporate hospitality and two holes are being used as driving ranges. Rates for residents will be $36 weekdays and $45 weekends, and $90 and $113 for nonresidents.
Reservations can be booked eight to 90 days in advance, for $26 a player for residents and $37 for nonresidents. A week out, there's an automated system for locals only.
"They're making a killing," Perez said. "They could charge $300. They could be just like Pebble."
Another San Diegan, Craig Stadler, provided one of the most memorable moments in Torrey Pines history during the third round of the 1987 Andy Williams Open. When his tee shot on No. 14 nestled next to a Leyland Cypress, Stadler decided to take a shot from his knees, using a towel to protect his turquoise pants from the wet grass.
Alerted by TV viewers, PGA officials decided Stadler had broken rule 13-3, which prohibits "building a stance." Stadler was subsequently disqualified because he did not assess the two-stroke penalty.
The Walrus lost $37,000, but got his revenge in 1995 when he ceremoniously took a chain saw to the diseased tree.
Unfortunately, the adjacent Torrey Pines Gliderport will be closed during the Open, meaning no hang gliders drifting overhead.
No doubt, though, the pros who know about Black's Beach will take a peek down the cliff from the fourth hole.
"The only time I ever looked down there, I saw a guy playing Frisbee by himself," two-time Open winner Lee Janzen said. "Luckily, we were so far away I couldn't see anything."