updated 11:42 p.m. ET June 6, 2008

SAN DIEGO - It might be the quintessential San Diego sporting experience, one that’s as familiar to Lefty and Tiger as it is to the worst hacker who’s ever set foot on the property.

When golfers reach the par-3 third hole on the South Course at Torrey Pines, La Jolla is off to the left, the Pacific Ocean is straight ahead, and, more often than not, a hang glider is floating silently overhead.

Out of sight down the bluffs, but certainly not out of everyone’s mind, are people in the buff at Black’s Beach.

A salty sea breeze blows ashore. Sometimes, fog hugs the cliffs.

“That’s where you feel the elements, where you see the ocean,” said Joe DeBock, the head pro at Torrey Pines.

The soul of San Diego’s golf heritage will become the first city-owned golf course to host a U.S. Open on June 12-15.

It will be San Diego’s first major, and just the second time the national championship has been played in Southern California in 60 years.

San Diego’s civic pride has taken numerous hits over the past decade, its image tarnished by City Hall corruption and bribery scandals and a billion-dollar pension crisis.

Somehow, the city’s golf-loving movers and shakers — with a big tip of the cap to New York’s Bethpage Black — managed to get the USGA to award the Open to Torrey Pines.

Not bad for a municipal course that has occupied its breathtaking clifftop setting longer than the Chargers and Padres have been playing in San Diego. But this muni doesn’t fit the stereotype of being a bit run down.

“I grew up there. That’s my home,” said Pat Perez, who made it through a U.S. Open qualifier. “That’s everything. I’ve been thinking about that ever since they came out with it.”

Some San Diego-raised pro golfers, such as Perez and Phil “Lefty” Mickelson, practically grew up at Torrey Pines. Others, including 1987 U.S. Open winner Scott Simpson, had different home courses but played tournaments at Torrey.

Billy Casper, who won the U.S. Open in 1959 at Winged Foot and in 1966 at San Francisco’s Olympic Club, was once hired by the city to rebuild Torrey’s greens.

“What a jewel we have here,” Casper said during a recent visit to his hometown.

William Bell turned a former Navy training base into the North and South courses, which opened in 1957. Torrey Pines was named after the rare coastal trees that are gnarled into spectacular shapes.

“I don’t know if it was foresight or luck, but, I mean, how fortunate for us and people who love the game and love to be outdoors that someone was smart enough to do that back in the ’50s,” said attorney Jay Rains, the man most responsible for bringing the Open here. “Because if you had that land sitting there unused today, the chances of getting a public golf course built on it would be pretty small.”

A 20-minute drive from downtown, Torrey Pines is synonymous with golf in San Diego. It’s usually the course out-of-towners want to play.

“A lot of people around here who grew up playing out there have fond memories of dragging their bag behind them on a cart, which I think makes this Open that much more special,” said Rains, the vice president of the USGA executive committee. “It’s not just that it’s in your hometown, it’s not just it’s a golf course that you can play, but it’s a golf course that I think spiritually means a lot to people around here.

“For Pat or for Phil, they dragged their own bag around there when they were 12 years old. I think that’s a very cool thing. For Phil Mickelson to step up on the tee on a golf course he’s played since he was a kid, and play for his national championship, has got to be pretty special.”

Rains got the idea for an Open at Torrey Pines in the late 1990s after the USGA awarded the 2002 Open to Bethpage Black, which is state-owned.

To get the already-tough South Course up to Open standards, a group called Friends of Torrey Pines helped raise $3.5 million to have Rees Jones, the so-called “U.S. Open Doctor,” lengthen the course, redo the greens and add bunkers. The gamble paid off in 2002 when the USGA awarded this Open to Torrey Pines.

“It was a good, strong golf course before they redid it, and now it’s a monster,” Casper said.

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