Dave Pelz, the noted golf short-game guru, came to Torrey Pines a couple of years ago to work with Phil Mickelson, and when they couldn't get out on the course right away because of a frost delay, Pelz killed time by wandering into the Torrey Pines pro shop.

He'd never been in there before, and he was fascinated by what he saw. Amid all of the merchandise were the framed pictures on the walls, sort of a Torrey family album.

On one wall was Tiger Woods, a scrawny little guy with glasses holding a Junior World trophy almost as big as he was. On another, PhPhil Mickelson grinned with one of his prizes, a helmet of hair covering his ears.

Marquee matchup When: Thursday, 8:06 a.m., Round 1 of U.S. Open Who: No. 1 Tiger Woods, No. 2 Phil Mickelson, No. 3 Adam Scott Where: No. 1 tee, Torrey Pines South Round 2: The same threesome will tee off Friday at 1:36 p.m. on the 10th hole

It was at that moment that Pelz was struck by just how long Torrey Pines has been a part of both m't;s lives. “I was thinking about how the upcoming U.S. Open had the potential to be an all-time classic,” Pelz recalled recently. “I would love to see Tiger and Phil come down to the wire. I really think it's going to happen this year.”

Pelz didn't know at the time that the U.S. Golf Association would ensure an early showdown for the 108th U.S. Open on the South Course, grouping the world's top two players with Adam Scott for the first and second rounds Thursday and Friday.

Whether that two-act play gets an extended run into the weekend, only Woods and Mickelson can determine with how they perform. Pop sports psychologists, however, can have a field day with this one, handicapping which player will be more charged up or rattled.

Stepping to that first tee, it is clearly Mickelson who is carrying the heavier emotional baggage at Torrey Pines.

While his stellar record and three wins in the Buick Invitational here can be lauded, he hasn't won on the South since it was redesigned in late 2001. He hasn't even seriously contended on a Sunday, though he has three top-six finishes.

Woods couldn't have played much better on the new South, with five of his six wins coming sie 2002, including the last four in a row.

Mickelson also hasn't seized a U.S. Open in 17 chances, though he has come agonizingly close on numerous occasions.

All of that suffering could be wiped away with a victory this week in the one place Mickelson would most want to win the national championship.

No one has worked more diligently in preparing for this venture at Torrey Pines. With the course just a few minutes from his Rancho Santa Fe home, Mickelson has shown up at least a half dozen times at Torrey in the last few months, wearing shorts, walking and carrying his own clubs.

“I think spending as much time as I have out there in the last year, and understanding the golf course, developing a game plan – that should hopefully allow me to shoot around par,” Mickelson said.

When Torrey Pines South underwent its renovation to secure the U.S. Open, no player seemed happier than Mickelson. While Woods flatly discounted Torrey's chances to get a major, Mickelson was an enthusiastic advocate for it.

He had good reason to be. At the time, the San Diego native was the defending champion of the Buick, having won the tournament for the third time the previous winter in a wild playoff with Davis Love III and Frank Lickliter. Woods had one only one Buick at that point.

When the Rees Jones redo was finished, Mickelson showed up for the 2002 Buick media day and said of Torrey possibly getting the Open, “For me, it would give me a great shot at winning it.”

Then Mickelson went out that year on the new South, shot 75 in the second round and missed the cut.

It has since been a somewhat strained relationship between Mickelson and the South. His best scores are a pair of 69s, and his scoring average is 71.6. That is better than most have fared on the toughened track, but not nearly good enough to best Woods.

“He hasn't been able yet to play it from the fairway enough to let his talents come out,” Pelz said. “If you're hacking out of the rough on too many holes out there, you're not going to do very well.”

Torrey Pines has exposed Mickelson's driving troubles more than most PGA Tour courses. In the last six years, he has never ranked better than 160th on tour in driving accuracy.

And no tournament punishes woes with the driver more than the U.S. Open. If Mickelson had been able to hit more than two fairways in the final round at Winged Foot two years ago – even just one more on the 72nd hole – he could have been a runaway champion.

“Phil doesn't have to be the best driver to win, but he can't be the worst,” Pelz said. “And there have been times when he's not driving it straight that he's putting a big burden on himself. Those days are behind him, I hope.”

More heartening for Mickelson is that he seems to have corrected some of his flaws in the last year working with instructor Butch Harmon. He still ranks 157th on the tour this year with 58-percent driving accuracy, but Pelz contends the misses are less off line.

In this Open, that difference could be huge, because the first cut of rough seems to be considerably more forgiving compared to the deep stuff.

“I just hope the USGA gives them a chance to hit the green,” Pelz said. “That's when the game gets exciting when they're playing from the rough. That's the real test; to hack it sideways out to the fairway isn't.

“This isn't the U.S. Driving Open. This is the U.S. Open. If hitting the fairway is the only thing that matters, we might as well stop and give it to Fred Funk.”

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