By RON KROICHICK, San Francisco Chronicle

Fast-forward two weeks to the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego.Let's pretend Tiger Woods' surgically repaired left knee aches too badly for him to walk 7,643 yards on four consecutive days. Let's say Phil Mickelson smacks too many drives left into the trees -- gee, where have we seen that before? -- and too few amazing wedge shots onto the green.

Her most momentous achievement stretches beyond the 59 she shot in 2001, past her landmark PGA Tour start at the Colonial two years later. It runs deeper than all those tournament titles (72 and counting), all the majors won (10), all the opponents she so ruthlessly has conquered over the years.

Just wondering: Is Colin Montgomerie cool with 12-year-old Rico Hoey entering the U.S. Open? And what about 79-year-old Harris Moore Jr.?

The U.S. Open carries a grand, oversized aura every June -- 156 players pursuing American golf's national championship on narrow fairways flanked by ankle-deep rough. This year's tournament will bring a special flavor at San Diego's Torrey Pines, given its prodigious length (more than 7,600 yards) and its distinction as the first Open held on a city-owned course.

Annika Sorenstam burst back onto the scene by winning the first LPGA Tour event of 2008. Paula Creamer followed with a narrow victory the next week, and then Lorena Ochoa, making her season debut, rolled to an 11-shot triumph.Three tournaments, three big-name winners -- exactly what the headline-starved LPGA needs in this Era of Tiger.

The schedule says the PGA Tour began play in New Orleans Thursday, as did the LPGA Tour in its regular stop outside Phoenix. Players will stick wooden pegs into the ground and launch shots into the desert and the bayou, eyeing the customary, oversized paychecks.But trust us on this: Many of them already are thinking about Augusta National and Mission Hills.

Tiger Woods flung his cap to the ground in animated celebration as his dramatic 24-foot putt curled into the hole Sunday at Bay Hill, and one person leaped to mind.Craig Ehlo.

Wake up, golf fans, your two-week nap is over: The Tiger Tour returns.

Hit ... the ... ball!That's a familiar lament, from clogged municipal courses to the game's highest levels. Slow play remains a persistent and perplexing issue in golf -- enough so for two of the world's top five players to hop into the fray.

Don't expect tournament officials to block the entrance to the Del Monte Forest if Bill Walters arrives for next year's AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.