World number one Tiger Woods enjoyed a cool morning start to his bid for a 10th major title here Thursday as play began in the 105th US Open at Pinehurst. As the sun peaked through the pine trees along the 7,214-yard par-70 layout, Masters champion Woods and South African two-time US Open winners Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, the defending champion, prepared to start.
Temperatures were expected to soar by mid-day and leave the afternoon groups - including 2004 Masters champion Phil Mickelson, Spain's Sergio Garcia and former world number one Vijay Singh of Fiji - sweltering and sticky.
The treacherous course, known for undulating greens with long run-off slopes, is bolstered by dense rough and lightning-fast putting surfaces where even a tiny mistake can bring disaster.
US Golf Association officials, humbled by a disaster last year that left the par-3 seventh hole at Shinnecock unplayable without emergency watering, vow this course will not inflict the same impossible conditions upon the field.
Pinehurst last hosted a major in 1999, when the late Payne Stewart sank a 20-foot par putt on the 72nd hole to edge Mickelson by a stroke. Woods and Singh shared third. Four months after his triumph, Stewart died in a plane crash.