My pick for the darkhorse that could take it all is Pat Perez, from San Diego, who grew up playing Torrey Pines. Photo USGA

This is a great time of year to be a member of the U.S. Golf Association, and there are hundreds of them who live in and/or play the golf courses of the Hamptons. First of all, of course, is this week's U.S. Open, the 108th edition of the National Championship. It marks the return of Tiger Woods to PGA Tour competition. He hasn't played competitively since the Masters because of knee surgery.

There is so much media attention given to the Open that, frankly, there isn't anything all that scintillating I can add to the overall scene at Torrey Pines. However, there are four local tidbits to offer.

One: The U.S. Open is called the Open because you can still play your way into it. Okay, maybe I can't, but every year when the USGA opens up its mailbox to Open qualifier applications, thousands spill out. Many are from men who may well have a reasonable chance of qualifying, but some are from "Tin Cup" dreamers who are young and optimistic or are not getting any younger and want to give it one good shot.

The USGA sets up regional qualifier tournaments, and over time those thousands of hopefuls are whittled down to a precious few. But yes, at the end of the day there are a handful of club pros and maybe an amateur or two who in the first round of the U.S. Open tee it up next to Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Sergio, and other bold-faced names of golf. This year, one of them is "ours."

Congratulations to Jeffrey Bors, the 33-year-old assistant pro at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton. The final qualifier was held on June 2 at the Old Oaks Country Club in Purchase in Westchester County. Over two rounds he shot a 142 to secure one of four spots in the U.S. Open from the Northeast. This will be his first trip to Torrey Pines.

A view of the 13th hole at Torrey Pines. Photo USGA

Two: Rees Jones. The East Hampton resident did not design the original Torrey Pines, but he is more responsible than anyone else for what confronts the world's best golfers in San Diego – a course in excess of 7,300 yards, the longest in Open history.

Torrey Pines is a public course, owned by the City of San Diego. About 10 years ago when city officials got wind of the USGA's interest in holding the Open at public courses – it had already selected Bethpage State Park, where the Open would be held in 2002 – they reached out to the "Open doctor," Rees Jones. He had earned the nickname because of his work to upgrade and toughen National Championship venues.

At Torrey Pines, Jones was offered the opportunity for an overhaul, and he didn't disappoint. The Buick Invitational has been held at Torrey Pines every year, and what was once a walk in the park became this past February a struggle for the strongest players. Predictably, the winner was Tiger Woods. With the wind high and rough possibly coming off the Pacific, this Open could turn out to be one of the most daunting ever. We'll see come next Monday how many friends Rees still has on the Tour.

By the way, the USGA has not conducted an Open in Southern California in over 60 years. Inevitably, how the one at Torrey Pines turns out affects how long the region has to wait for its next National Championship.

Three: The Open is coming back to Bethpage – next year! I recall being there with my son, who was 13 at the time, in 2002 and hoping this wasn't a one-time thing, then being elated and disappointed when the USGA announced the Open's return to the public course – elated, for obvious reasons, and disappointed because 2009 seemed so far away. But starting next Monday, the countdown to Bethpage Black begins.

We all know that that man again, Tiger Woods, won in 2002. Perhaps next year, at age 33, he will be seeking the second victory in the Grand Slam run that was over before it began this year.

Four: Ann Liguori. The Westhampton resident, after playing in Yogi Berra's annual charity tourney in New Jersey on Monday, hopped a plane to San Diego on Tuesday to cover the Open for the New York City station WFAN and for her own production company. She most likely doesn't know all 156 players in the field but she knows a lot of them and she has interviewed them numerous times over the years. On her WLIU-88.3 radio show at 9 a.m. this Saturday, she will be broadcasting live from Torrey Pines.

I'm happy to put in a plug for a special event taking place here in the Hamptons on June 29. The Ann Ligouri Foundation is presenting the annual Outback Steakhouse Charity Dinner at the Duckwalk Vineyards in Water Mill from 6.30 p.m. to 12 midnight. Tickets are incredibly reasonable – only a $100 donation – and for that you get wine, dinner, music, and dancing. Ann will be there, of course, and if you haven't met one of the more interesting people in golf, here is your chance. And while you're at it, you're helping an excellent cause – the Healthy Directions and Clinical Nutrition Research of the Weill Cornell Medical College as part of the Healthy Children – Healthy Future Initiative on the East End.

Ann Ligouri

Tickets need to be purchased in advance. You can write a check for $100 out to the Ann Liguori Foundation and mail it to P.O. Box 605, Westhampton Beach, NY 11977. For more information about the event or the foundation, call 631-325-8573 or go to www.annliguori.com. Looking ahead, Ann's foundation will host another fundraiser at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton on Monday, Oct. 6. If you want to register a foursome – only 22 spots are available! - email Ann at innerview@aol.com.

Another reason why it is a great time to be a USGA member: The newly-renovated (at a cost of $19.7 million) Golf House which includes the USGA Museum has just opened. It is located in Far Hills, New Jersey, certainly within driving distance of Hamptons residents, especially those who also have homes in the immediate NYC metropolitan area.

I took full advantage of the facilities at the museum and library at Golf House when I was doing research for my book "The Ryder Cup: Golf's Greatest Event," and even more so when I was researching "Sir Walter: Walter Hagen and the Invention of Professional Golf." (A shout-out to John Coyne for his generous praise of that book in the Acknowledgments in his most enjoyable novel, "The Caddie Who Played With Hickory," just published by St. Martin's Press). Rand Jerris, the director of the museum and archives for the USGA, has always been helpful and a reservoir of information about the history of golf.

With the new Golf House, it should be an even better visit to what The New Yorker once called "the Louvre of the golfing world," particularly with the addition of the Arnold Palmer Research Center. I have not been there yet, but I intend to spend time there this summer. After I do, I'll be glad to report on it for Hamptons.com viewers, and I will include comments by the King himself. As Tiger Woods continues to mature, if he can be even half as courteous and warm as Arnold Palmer, he will be as successful off the course as on it.

Oh, and my prediction for who raises the U.S. Open trophy Sunday evening? With a very difficult course, rust, and a knee only 80 percent fit, I doubt it will be Tiger. Mickelson is due to win a National Championship, but the hometown San Diego crowd could cause him to implode. I'm thinking it's going to be a very disciplined player like Jim Furyk who wins, or a dark horse who is on the comeback trail this year, Pat Perez.