U.S. OPEN : Turning Pressure Into Real Pleasure : Golf: Couples feels good that he’s not the favorite this time. O’Meara will try to relax on a course where he has four tour victories.

There is pressure on Mark O’Meara to win the U.S. Open because he has been successful here--and he acknowledges his status.

If there is pressure on Fred Couples, the Masters champion, he is doing his best to deflect it.

Couples was acknowledged as the best player in the world after he won the Masters. It was his third victory of the year and he had finished second in two other events.

Since the Masters in April, he has taken a low profile on and off the course. He has played in only five tournaments, finishing no higher than 22nd and missing the cut in his last two outings.

He also took three weeks off from the tour, not practicing much and relaxing by planting trees at his home in Florida.

Couples, 32, seems reluctant about his celebrity. He is also uncomfortable with the attention paid to him by fans and the media.

Couples once said that he doesn’t like to answer a phone at home “because someone might be at the other end.”

He seems almost relieved that he is not the favorite to win the 92nd U.S. Open, which begins today at Pebble Beach.

Couples was favored to win the Masters and it was justified.

“When I went into the Masters, I was playing so good that it didn’t matter what anyone else thought,” he said.

“It would be a mistake, though, to put any money on me (now) because I’m probably not going to win. But I do feel like if something good can happen by Saturday, or Sunday, maybe I can win.”

Couples, a gifted player with a fluid swing, hardly seems to be brimming with confidence.

“I’m not someone to beat. I’m just like a qualifier,” he said. “I don’t think I’m superstar. Michael Jordan is a superstar because he can dominate every night he plays.

“A superstar is Jack Nicklaus, or Arnold Palmer. They did it for 35 years. I did it for (only) eight months. I want to be a great player, but I’m not close to it.”

The easygoing Couples says all the attention has been “a bit much.”

“I’m not outgoing and to have that many people clawing at you is irritating,” he said.

“(When) you get pushed around day in and day out for a couple of weeks, it’s not really fun.”

So Couples went into seclusion for a few weeks.

Couples said that he doesn’t go to tournaments to talk about himself. However, if he’s winning he will inevitably be asked questions about his game and himself.

He added that he would rather see his name in the small type on the scoreboard page than be interviewed.

No one has won the modern “grand slam” in one calendar year--the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship.

Only four players have won those four events in a lifetime--Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen.

“I don’t see anyone ever doing that, “ Couples said of the grand slam. “But to win two (majors) in a row would be a fantasy. I don’t really think about it.

“I don’t think I will be the best player in the world, but I can get better.”

Couples would like to be thought of as just another player here. O’Meara is aware that he is in a different category because four of his eight tour victories have been achieved in the the regular tour event at Pebble Beach.

“There is definitely a little more pressure because of my track record here,” O’Meara said. “But pressure is what you put on yourself. No one is holding a gun at you. For me to perform to the best of my ability I have to be as relaxed and patient as I can be.”

O’Meara’s four tournament victories here have been achieved over three courses, with the final 18 holes played at Pebble Beach.

Asked why he has been so successful here, O’Meara said: “I like the course, the uneven lies, downhill, sidehill and uphill. I grew up on courses like that.”

He was referring to Mission Viejo Country Club.

Because of the rough, hard greens and narrow fairways, O’Meara, 35, says the course is now four or five strokes harder than it was during the AT&T; tournament last February.

That fact doesn’t disturb O’Meara.

“When you’re playing for a national championship you have to make the course as hard as possible,” he said.

“The fairways are green; the rough is very, very green and the greens are brown.”

That was in reference to the USGA’s policy of repeatedly mowing the greens before an Open tournament.

O’Meara has always admired the beauty of the Pebble Beach course on the Monterey Peninsula.

“This is a beautiful place,” he said. “When you come to a place like this and you start to hit the ball bad, all you have to do is look out there at the ocean.

“Look at those sea lions. They don’t care if you hit it left or right.”

O’Meara, who has missed the cut in the last three U.S. Opens, seems to be taking the pressure in stride.

“I would rather be picked as a favorite than having no chance at all,” he said.

As for Couples, he would probably be happier if he was ignored.

Golf Notes

The weather forecast for the tournament is cloudy skies with winds ranging from 15 to 20 m.p.h. and no rain. . . . Phil Mickelson, who recently won the NCAA individual championship while competing for Arizona State, will be making his pro debut at the U.S. Open. He won the Tucson Open as an amateur last year. “This is the most nervous I have ever been at a professional event. For some reason adding the word professional makes me nervous,” he said. . . . Mitch Voges, the 1991 U.S. Amateur champion, is also in the field.