By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

The U.S. Open is being played at Pebble Beach this weekend — it’s the 100th anniversary of the famed course — and it’s rightly referred to as “America’s Course.” It is indeed a course you can play, but you might want to check the interest rates before you go.

You’ve seen it for years, either from a previous U.S. Opens or during the AT&T Tournament in February. But unless you’ve played it, you really haven’t see all it has to offer. Two years ago, I got a chance to play Pebble Beach and I can recall almost every shot. Since that makes me an expert in my own mind, here is a TV viewer’s guide for watching the action this week.

** The course is not overly long by today’s standards. Only one hole (#2) is converted from a par 5 to a par 4 and even that doesn’t make that hole all that difficult.

** The greens are amazingly small. If you’ve played in Shreveport, think Querbes. No kidding.

** There are some serious scoring opportunities on the first seven holes. Once you get to the #8 tee box, game on.

** The opening hole isn’t exactly inspiring. It requires less than a driver, had a quirky dogleg right and the tee box feels like it is in the middle of an apartment complex.

** To me, the second shot on the par 5 #6 is totally intimidating. The tee shot is no fun either, with traps on the left and the Pacific Ocean on the right. But TV doesn’t do the second shot justice with just how steep it is up the cliff. And it’s also blind; you just have to take a guess where to hit it.

** The short par 3 seventh hole really is that pretty.

** Jack Nicklaus was right on how great the second shot on No. 8 is. You are hitting off a cliff, over the Pacific Ocean to a tricky green. Standing there looking down, you wish you could hit small bucket.

** Nos. 9 & 10 seem like basically the same hole; long par 4s along the coastline. The 10th green is as far away as you can get from the clubhouse. (That’s Gene Hackman’s old house right behind the #10 green).

** People have said that the inland holes (Nos. 11-16) are nothing special, but that’s just because they don’t visually compare to the previous ones. You’ll see some interesting plays around the No. 14 green (par 5), which can be tricky to hit and read.

** I don’t know how anybody ever hits the 17th green. Standing on the tee box, there looks like nothing but sand and the Pacific Ocean.

** No. 18 is a great finishing hole because anything can happen. A tee shot in the fairway makes it a very easy hole to make a par. But that tee shot is all it’s cracked up to be.