One of the reasons we like watching the U.S. Open golf tournament each June is, it's one of the few tournaments where the pros struggle in a way that us average chops can relate to.

Most of the time, the top players smash their tee shots some 320 yards down a pristine-conditioned fairway, then spin a 9-iron onto the green from 180 yards out, landing like a lawn dart and setting up a makeable birdie putt.

A rolling hook with a 3-wood from 278 yards away, like Tiger Woods hit on the eighth hole of the Masters on Sunday, a shot that started off way to the right of the green, then kept curving back toward the green - like a sprinter rounding the corner in the 200-meter dash - setting up a 9-foot eagle putt? No way for us amateurs - unless you're talking virtual golf.

IN THE U.S. Open, when the pros drive it into the rough, good luck finding it - that's what I'm talking about! And if they can get a club on it, often times they can only advance the ball a few yards out into the fairway. They might even have to settle for a bogey. You bet!

One thing they usually don't have to worry about - how to explain to someone how a piece of their 5-iron came flying off when they thought they had a fairly clean lie in the rough, only to find when they hit the ball that there was a big 'ol rock just below the surface. Sparks fly!

So when Kevin Na drives it off the fairway and into the heavy brush, then slashes it around in there for awhile, then finally hacks it out of there and onto the green - then has to go back and look at the video to determine what score he shot (16) - we can empathize.

And when Rory McIlroy snap-hooks his tee shot on the 10th hole in the final round of the Masters, and has to play his second shot from between a couple of houses - well, we've been there.

We've all pushed or pulled our drives - mostly pushed - just off the fairway into somebody's back yard. Often it's just a few feet into the yard and if you use selective vision, you'd swear there were no out-of-bounds stakes, and if nobody's looking, the ball must be in play, right?

Also, if you play during the week, especially during the day, there's a good chance the homeowners are at work. And even if they're not, you're pretty confident you can sneak in there and whack the ball back into the fairway before the lady who lives in the house slings open the sliding glass back door and charges out into the back yard after you, closely followed by her killer poodle.

No, I've never tried this. For one thing, I do respect the game a little more than that. For another, my brother the golf pro would write me out of his will. And thirdly, just my luck the lady would be home and have a Rottweiler to sic on me.

BACK TO McIlroy. We're not exactly giddy to see him eventually finish with a triple-bogey seven on the hole in question, stumble to a 43 on the back nine and finish with an 80. We've all shot lots of 43s for nine holes, and usually that sends us careening toward a 90 or worse.

Leading by four entering the final round, McIlroy finished 10 strokes behind the winner, Charl Schwartzel. Instead of taking home $1.44 million for winning, he "settled" for $128,000.

Na shot his 16 on the par-4 ninth hole in the first round last week at the Texas Open. Impressively, he was 4-under on the other 17 holes, and signed for an 8-over 80. I can guarantee you if most of us shot a 16 on a hole, we wouldn't be finishing with an 80 - unless we left the course with a few holes left.

I am fortunate enough to have never carded a 16 on a hole - though not for lack of trying.

When I was 10 or 11 years old, playing a 600-yard par-5 at Battle Creek Golf Course in Salem, Ore., I hockeyed the ball up the fairway for a while, onto the green and eventually over the green. My 14th shot was a chip that would have raced past the hole and back into the fairway except that my dad, standing near the flag for what I realized later was a very good reason, stuck his leg out and stopped the ball.

I tapped in for a routine 15.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.