PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Welcome to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
This is far from the PGA Tour tournament held here every January, when the likes of Peyton Manning, Bill Murray and Ray Romano tee it up with the professionals for three days.
This isn’t the old clambake. This is the national championship. And Pebble Beach is living up to its reputation as a world-class championship course.
If the U.S. Open had a permanent home, it would be here. Jack Nicklaus had it right when he said that if he had only one round left to play in his life, he’d play it at Pebble.
Par turned out to be a great score, birdies were few, eagles were rarer and mistakes were plentiful, and catastrophes such as Aaron Baddeley’s four-putt and Morgan Hoffman’s quadruple-bogey didn’t seem all that odd.