Woods says these greens will give players the blues

Tiger Woods had a 7 a.m. tee time for his practice round Tuesday with Bubba Watson, and with the U.S. Open just around the corner, Woods could still smile about Oakmont Country Club. That might change by Thursday’s first round.

Woods had an answer ready when asked if there were any holes out there that he looked forward to playing.

“Yeah,” he said, “the 19th is great, man.”

It’s the first anniversary of Woods’ famously missing the cut at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, the first tournament Woods had played since the Masters and about five weeks after his father had died.

“Probably not exactly the best tournament to come back to,” he said.

But if Winged Foot was difficult, then Oakmont may be off the charts, Woods said.

“They are by far the most difficult greens I’ve ever played,” he said. “I thought Winged Foot’s greens were pretty tough, Augusta’s pretty tough, but both golf courses have flat spots [on the greens]. Augusta may have these big, big slopes, but they have these flat spots that they usually put the pins on. Here, I’m trying to figure out where a flat shelf is.

“And most of the greens here are all tilted. Some run away from you, which is not the norm in modern course design. Like I said, depends on how the pins are set, if they give us a chance to play or if they are going to make it really impossible. We’ll see.”

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Phil Mickelson said he admires the Church Pews, the gaping bunker separated by grass islands that runs along the third and fourth fairways. He hopes to admire them from a distance.

“I haven’t hit shots out of there,” he said. “I certainly don’t plan on going in them.”

Woods also said he didn’t hit any shots out of the bunkers in his practice rounds.

Said Woods: “I don’t really think that you should be practicing negativity.”

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The last player from Europe to win the U.S. Open was Tony Jacklin in 1970, but Padraig Harrington of Ireland isn’t buying any inferiority references.

“I think that’s a way of using historical data to try and put something on a future event,” he said. “At the end of the day, who knows who is going to win this tournament this week? If the Europeans have won the last 25, would we have a better or less chance of winning the next one? The law of averages says a European will win one eventually.”

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For the record, Oakmont has 100 acres of rough and 210 sand bunkers, but no water hazards.

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David Howell of England withdrew because of a wrist injury and was replaced by alternate Luke List.

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Ernie Els is 37 and 13 years removed from his 1994 U.S. Open victory at Oakmont -- the first of his three major titles. He said there’s a main difference between the Els of 1994 and the Els of 2007: “I would say 25 pounds.”

The key to winning again is to keep the ball on the fairway and to make putts, Els said. The only problem is that it’s not so simple to do that.

“If you go into the rough here, you’re not going to get it to the green,” he said.

“You basically have to miss by 50 yards where the people are walking to try to have a shot, and I don’t think the guys are going to try to hit 50 yards off line. Basically, you have to keep it in play and hope for the best.”

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com