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The Same Course in Name Only
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One of the more trying holes this week is expected to be the newly lengthened 13th, which could play as long as 614 yards. A new tee box added 74 yards and is located on the far side of a canyon overlooking the Pacific. A drive of 255 yards will be necessary to carry over the gorge to a bailout fairway on the right. Hardly anyone in the field is expected to reach the green in two shots, unless there is a brisk wind at their backs.
"I couldn't believe there was a tee box back there," Perez said of the drive at 13. "There's no getting there [in two]. There's not even a chance. It looks like it's 10,000 yards away."
After his nine-hole practice round Tuesday, Woods said: "It's unbelievable how far back it is. It's usually where they start their hang-gliding over there."
Mickelson hates it.
"That new tee box is terrible, the biggest waste of money I've ever seen," he said Tuesday. "Before, there was great risk-reward. There was great reward if you hit the fairway from the tee where you could go for it. But from the back, no one can reach it. Everybody is going to be laying up from the same spot and everybody is going to have the same pitch. It's like a par 3 from the bottom of the hill. Just a terrible tee box."
On the shorter side of Jones's makeover, the 14th hole, normally a 435-yard par 4, now offers the option of a shorter tee, 277 yards from the putting surface, which the USGA likely will utilize for at least one round. Most players will be able to reach the green with a long iron. If they go deep with their tee shots, disaster awaits with a steep fall off into a hazard back left of the green. There is no recovery from there, with double bogey or worse definitely a possibility.
"Your approach is pretty much the same as any other Open," Perez said. "It's going to be hard. You're going to have to be happy with [being] 30, 40 feet if you're on a certain spot [on the green] trying to make a bogey as opposed to trying to make birdie. I approach it where I can make the least amount of mistakes."
And how will he approach teeing off Thursday at his beloved home course, now the epicenter of the golf universe.
"I don't know," he said. "I've been pretty calm so far. I haven't really seen it as a U.S. Open. I see it as a course I've played a thousand times. I'm just kind of seeing it as Torrey Pines, a place I love to play."
