Imagine the feelings of Phil Mickelson. It is the morning, the US Open starts and he is on his way to the first tee at Torrey Pines where he will hit his first shot at 8.06. As he lopes from the practice ground to the tee he can hear little but encouragement from the golf spectators. "Go Phil, go" they are shouting. "Go Phil, go."

They say that home is where the heart is and at Torrey Pines Mickelson is home. The two golf courses that make up this municipal course on the cliffs north of San Diego are where Mickelson grew up playing many junior competitions. For all that he now lives 20 miles inland and spends much of his time travelling, San Diego is where Mickelson was born in 1970, lived and went to school.

There is a well-known photograph of him, gap toothed and grinning, holding the San Diego County junior golf championship trophy for boys 10 and under. Since joining the PGA Tour in the US he has won three tournaments at Torrey Pines

Now the first US Open to be held in southern California for 60 years has arrived and Mickelson, ranked second in the world, is a favourite. Actually he is a strong favourite.

Tiger Woods, the world No 1, has not fully recovered from an operation to his left knee. Woods has hit hundreds of practice balls in preparation for the second major championship of the year but has not walked 18 holes since Sunday April 13th, the last round of the Masters.

As Mickelson moves around the course, cheers of support ringing in his ears, each hole brings back memories. He remembers how in his childhood he used to play at nearby Balboa Park, another municipal course in San Diego.

He remembers how he formed his near magical short game in the family's back garden where there was a bunker, a green and a small fairway. He remembers that occasionally he accidentally mishit a chip in the garden and the ball shot over the fence and broke a window in the house of his neighbours.

He probably thinks there were times when the neighbour, an obstetrician who brought Mickelson into the world in 1970, wished he hadn't.

He remembers the night he wanted to demonstrate that he had passed his driving test drove a friend to nearby Tijuana, Mexico, against the wishes of his parents and stayed out past the midnight curfew. When he got home the front door was not just locked but chained.

His mother told him later that she could see him sitting on the front door step and wanted to give him a blanket but his father said no. "This is going to be a lesson for our son."

He remembers the time he ignored a family celebration to play golf and discovered his angry parents were waiting for him when he finished his round. He remembers that he fended off their anger by repeating what Ben Hogan had said: Every day I don't practice is another day longer before I become great. If you don't take me to the golf course I'll just have to find another way of getting there."

Most of all though he remembers how often he and others from San Diego wished a major championship could be played at Torrey Pines. "Wouldn't that be great?" they used to say to one another as they stood on the tee of the 4th, the par 4 that runs arrow-straight along a cliff top 100 feet above the Pacific Ocean. "Imagine this as the finishing hole of a US Open" as they walked up the par 5 18th toward the practice putting green and the driving range and the Lodge. "That would be pretty cool, wouldn't it?"

Now that wish has been granted.

"I'm really excited to see it in southern California" Mickelson said. "I can't fully believe the US Open is here at Torrey Pines. It is something we have dreamed about. I am so excited and hopefully I will play well."

***

A group of us were celebrating the life of a golfing friend the other day when one, who we shall call William, told a story that struck an eerie chord with those of us who believe that sometimes another force is at work in shaping our lives. William had been playing at a local club and though he had never been able to play the first three holes very well, he did so that day. Very well in fact.

He started 3,3,3. It so happened that the first three holes were in view of the hospice where the man whose life we were celebrating was dying.

As William moved out of sight of the hospice he gave a cheery wave to his dying friend, as much as to say thanks. William reached the clubhouse at the end of his round he heard that his friend had died at about the time he was playing the first three holes.

Such spooky stories abound in golf. There is the one of the man who suffered a heart attack on the green of a short hole at his home club, was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. One month later his wife was playing for the first time since the death of her husband. She arrived at the short hole and holed in one. She had never had a hole in one in her life before that - and indeed not had one since.

A Canadian golf writer played many rounds with his father at a club in Toronto where there was a cemetery on the right of the 10th hole. A couple of days after his father was buried in this cemetery, the golf writer was on the 10th tee. "Normally my bad shot is a hook" he recounted. "But this time I sliced, the ball landed in the cemetery and I am sure, because of the lie of the land, it would have rolled down to my father's grave."

A British golf photographer was covering the 1995 Masters with half a mind on his father who was ill back home. On the Friday up near the 6th tee while waiting for a group to tee off, the photographer noted a flower break off its stem and fall to the ground. He looked at his watch, noted the time and later his mother confirmed that that was indeed the moment at which his father had died 6,000 miles away.

If anybody has any similar stories involving golf then let me know and I'll print them.

***

My item last week about the World Match Play Championship ending at Wentworth and moving to the south of Spain prompted a couple of comments.

"Strange how players like Nicklaus, Norman, Seve, Nick Price, O'Meara or Woods produced world class matches when it was invitational, due to the new selection rules the event has lost all its profile. Lower class players should stop whinging about the greens as it never seemed to bother the above greats. Jon, Maidstone, Kent

JH: Peter Alliss would be proud of you, Jon. They're spoiled, whingeing brats these days, aren't they? I hear that International Management group are to make an announcement about the future of the Match Play any moment. Expect it to move down to Spain.

"McCormack was an egomaniac. Although his event meant little to great players like Nicklaus, Watson and Trevino, MHM thought it a major, indeed he referred to the four majors as 'the other majors.' Few in America will notice its passing. By the way, Trevino didn't win it. Mark Oliver, Irlam, England.

JH: It sounds as though you knew McCormack better than I did, Mark. I think history will treat him more kindly than you do. He did do a lot of good for golf, though it could be said that he did a lot of good for himself as well. Thanks for highlighting my deliberate mistake about Trevino.

I was thinking he had won in 1970 when in fact he was beaten in the final by Jack Nicklaus. Or was I thinking of 1972 when he was beaten in the final by Tom Weiskopf? At one of those he beat Tony Jacklin on his way to the final and as he and Jacklin left the first tee in their match Jacklin said to Trevino: "I don't want to talk today, Lee." Trevino replied: "don't worry Tony. You don't have to talk. All you have to do is listen."

***

The week in 60 Seconds: Britain and Ireland losing the Curtis Cup at St Andrews on Sunday, a flight to Los Angeles the following Saturday, and a drive down the west coast to San Diego, discovering the "June gloom" as the damp, overcast weather is known in summer in San Diego, and preparing to watch Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott tee off in the first two rounds of the US Open, the first time the leading three golfers in the world have been put in the same group.

***

Hero of the week: Sam Alexis Woods, the daughter and first child of the world No 1 and Elin, his wife. "There is no way I would have got through this [recovery from knee surgery], spending that much time off, without Sam being there" Woods said. "It took my mind off the fact that I had just had surgery done. She was a wonderful distraction."