USGA’s aim: Get it right at Pebble

Beloved course represents shot at old-style U.S. Open

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The stage is set for what should be the ideal U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, perhaps the most popular of all U.S. Open courses with its magnificent Pacific coastline and small greens, with its history of high drama and great champions.

The fairways are roughly the same width as always at Pebble. The rough is lush and penal. The forecast is good.

“I don’t think I’ve seen the golf course in better condition,” said John Bodenhamer, the senior managing director of championships for the USGA.

So what could possibly go wrong? Based on the recent run of U.S. Open mishaps, that’s a question that lingers for some of golf’s best players.

And the USGA can only hope it has the answer.

“I think the U.S. Open has been in the past one of the most respected majors as far as the test you’re going to face — fair, hard, a good test of golf,” Rickie Fowler said. “I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of guys who say it’s been a true test. Not all that stuff is coming together like it used to.”

Fowler is still relatively young, and he’s never passed the test at any major.

Tiger Woods, a three-time U.S. Open champion, at times feels like even he recognizes it.

“The Open has changed,” Woods said. “I thought it was just narrow fairways — hit it in the fairway or hack out, move on. Now there’s chipping areas around the greens. There’s less rough, graduated rough. They try to make the Open strategically different. I just like it when there’s high rough and narrow fairways and, ‘Go get it, boys.’ ”

That’s why the USGA might face more pressure this week than any of the players.

It needs to get this one right.

This should be a typical U.S. Open. Right?

“Golf course setup is not easy,” former champion Jim Furyk said. “We’re human. The golf course changes. Nothing is free of being able to screw it up. You’re dealing with a moving target. As critical as we are as players, it would be difficult to be on the other side and set it up.”

The problem in Furyk’s view is how the USGA has responded to it over the years. If anything is going to go bad in a major, the U.S. Open is the chief candidate. That’s the very nature of this major. It wants to live on the edge — players expect that — and invariably the line is crossed.

The measure, now, is four days over Pebble Beach.