No longer kid stuff

Torrey Pines now Open test for the old pros

He hasn't played since April, but it's doubtful that Tiger Woods has bitten off more than he can chew by entering the US Open. (chris carlson/Associated Press)

SAN DIEGO - Though fog lumbering in off the Pacific can sometimes blur the views at Torrey Pines Golf Course, it's safe to say that when it comes to future golf champions, the picture out here has always been in focus.

We have seen them walk the fairways of Torrey Pines for parts of five decades, and for perspective, consider the names that shared the winners' roll call in 1990-91 at the Callaway World Junior Golf Championship: Tiger Woods and Lorena Ochoa.

Champions then, and nearly 20 years later, they remain very much the same. Their venues have changed and so have their lifestyles, but for these former phenoms, they will always have Torrey Pines.

So, too, will Pat Perez.

A native of Cardiff, a short drive up Interstate 5, Perez learned the game at Torrey Pines and how to make a few bucks, too. He started working various jobs at Torrey when he was 13. "I worked all the way through high school," he said. "So I've been around here a long time."

Thus is it understandable why this will be one of the most cherished weeks of his PGA Tour career. Perez is part of the field for the 108th US Open, which has brought its enormous stage and massive purse to the edge of the Pacific, and that is notable not just for the magnificent vista, but for the fact that Torrey Pines is where so many future tour professionals got their first taste of international competition.

The Callaway World Junior Golf Championship began in 1968 when native San Diegan Jack Renner, who would go on to win on the PGA Tour, captured the boys' 11-12 division. The next year, Laura Baugh, a future LPGA Tour sensation, won the girls' 13-14 division. And notable youngsters have been winning ever since. Most notable were the wins by the phenom of all phenoms, Woods, between 1988 and '91, though he came up short in 1993.

That was the year the local kid made good.

"It wasn't about beating Tiger back then," Perez said. "I just wanted to win on my home course."

He did, too, and now that he's an established member of the PGA Tour and in possession of more than $7.5 million in career earnings, Perez is thrilled to be back amid the cool ocean breezes, California sunshine, and some of the most scenic views you can find.

He probably never dreamed during those teenage days, as he played golf with his buddies at Torrey Pines, that the national open would be contested there someday. But he would have had a lot of company in that. For years, the US Open was a fixture at only the most blueblooded of private clubs, be it Merion or The Country Club, Oakmont or Winged Foot, Congressional or Medinah, the Olympic Club or Baltusrol.

Even with visits to Pebble Beach and Pinehurst No. 2, the private feel enveloped the proceedings, for while you certainly can walk on and play those venues, you'd better be prepared to turn over hundreds of dollars.

But with a stunning US Open at Bethpage Black out on Long Island in 2002, US Golf Association officials won rave reviews for bringing the spectacle to a public golf course, and they've done it again at Torrey Pines's South Course, where, if you are a resident of San Diego, you will pay between $27 and $45 for greens fees. And even if nonresidents have to come up with $185, it remains a true pay-as-you-play facility, hardly in the mode of those clubs that have long hosted this event.

It also is where a healthy list of competitors cut their competitive teeth, names such as Woods and Perez, Trevor Immelman and Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim. True enough, what they'll find this week is not a course that reminds them of those world juniors - the fairways are narrower, the rough higher, the turf firmer, and the stage filled with spotlights - but it sure brings back memories.

True, it's the toughest test in golf, but Perez views the week differently.

"I haven't seen it yet as really a US Open [course]," he said. "I see it as a course I've played a thousand times.

"When I've gone to other majors, I get there and go, 'Oh, my God, it's awesome. It's a major and this and that.'

"But here? I've seen these holes so many times that I'm not seeing it as the US Open. I'm just kind of seeing it as Torrey Pines, a place I love to play."

He isn't alone. Woods not only won multiple times in the Callaway World Junior, he has triumphed six times in 11 starts in the PGA Tour's Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines. Not that anything Woods has accomplished needs to be affixed with a disclaimer, but even he knows those Buick victories came in scenarios far different from what he'll face this week. There is a North Course at Torrey that the PGA Tour uses for one round, but it is a parking lot this week. No, it'll strictly be the South Course, and whether or not the USGA uses all 7,643 available yards, it figures to be a stern test.

It goes without saying that, like every other US Open, this one will require you to drive it in the fairway, but given the length, Perez said forget about being conservative.

"A lot of other Opens, you could run a 2-iron or a rescue [club] or something like that," he said. "Here, I think you have to hit driver. From what I've seen so far, they have that kikuya grass and the ball doesn't really roll that much. I think you've got to hit driver a lot."

That is why Woods, playing for the first time since having knee surgery April 15, was out early yesterday morning for his third practice round in six days, to re-study the sight lines, which have changed slightly because of the added length, and to test the rough.

Victorious in 13 of golf's major championships, Woods remains the game's premier big-time player, but if you study his résumé, it is the US Open that has given him the most trouble. While he has won the Masters and PGA Championship four times each and the British Open on three occasions, only twice has he prevailed at the US Open, and not since 2002.

And just where was the championship held that year? At Bethpage, another true public course.

Maybe it's an omen of good things for Woods. No one knows. But Perez does know this: He's thrilled to be involved, and unlike the days of long ago, he has established tee times.

"We used to get here at about 1 or 2 in the morning [to get a number]," he said. "You got your number and then you could go to sleep in your car. You'd set your alarm for 5:30. It was one after another going off, starting at 6:30 - and then I'd go to work after that."

Fast-forward many years and Perez will again be at Torrey for an early assignment, only this time golf will be his work.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com