Torrey Pines Proves Great Choice

It's amazing what faster greens and thicker rough can do to the best golfers in the world. Earlier this year at the Buick Invitational, Tiger Woods shot 269 at Torrey Pines. This week in the U.S. Open, he shot 283. Adjust the course setup (and throw in a bum knee), add 14 strokes the score of the best player of all-time.

Back several years ago, when the USGA announced that Torrey Pines would be hosting a U.S. Open, not everyone was pleased. Torrey Pines? Over at the superb golf architecture site GolfClubAtlas.com, a discussion thread was started with the title, "Is Torrey Pines the worst U.S. Open course ever?" The consensus was "yes."

Mind you, nobody was suggesting that Torrey Pines is not a good course, just that it isn't a great course. Or perhaps more to the point, that it isn't among the greatest courses.

And it's not. It's a fairly straightforward golf course. Take the holes out of their setting along the Pacific Coast and this collection of holes might even seem a little ... bland. Torrey is definitely no Oakmont, no Shinnecock, no Pebble Beach or Winged Foot. It's not even Chambers Bay.

It's never ranked in any of those Top 100 courses in America lists; it doesn't even make the Top 30 in California list.

But that's from an architectural point of view. What about as a venue? As a place to play a golf tournament? Clearly, Torrey Pines - with a tougher course setup - has stood up to the best players. Only two of them managed to finish under par.

But while Torrey was punishing this week, it wasn't brutal the way Winged Foot was in 2006 or the way Oakmont was in 2007.

U.S. Open courses often produce more moans from the crowds than cheers. Fans groan as yet another par putt slides by the hole, rather than cheer as someone makes a birdie. Bogeys, not birdies, change the leaderboard in many U.S. Opens.

I've never minded the USGA's brutal course setups for its Open; I don't care if the winning score is below or above par. My only complaint with U.S. Open setups in the past has been the lack of birdie holes down the stretch, the lack of risk-reward holes. Oh, there's always risk - but very rarely reward.

Torrey Pines in the 2008 U.S. Open managed to provide the golfers with birdie - even eagle - opportunities in the last six holes without appearing the least bit easy, without appearing to compromise in the least the USGA's unstated but understood goal to have the winning score somewhere close to par.

Torrey Pines provided those loud cheers, those signature moments that have been missing from some recent U.S. Opens.

So while Torrey might not be among the greatest courses in the country - from an architectural standpoint, might even, arguably, be the worst course in U.S. Open history - as a place to play the U.S. Open, it turned out to be the perfect choice.

I hope the USGA returns very soon.