U.S. Open qualifier Perez in hog heaven at Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - This week's U.S. Open at Torrey Pines is as close to perfection as it can get for American qualifier Pat Perez.

Since the age of 13, Perez has played the beautiful South Course hugging the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean "more than a thousand times".

He knows the par-71 layout as well as anyone else in the field and will proudly tee off in his fourth U.S. Open on Thursday having booked his place in a sectional qualifier last week.

Perez, yet to win his first PGA Tour title, readily concedes it would have been a bitter pill to swallow if he had missed out on the year's second major championship.

"I wouldn't have watched it," the 32-year-old told reporters at on Monday. "I'd have been up at the lake on the boat all week. It wouldn't have interested me in the least."

Perez was one of 23 players out of 140 who qualified in Columbus, Ohio after making an inauspicious start.

"I was three over after seven (holes) and I knew about four or five under was going to make it," the Arizona native said.

"So I made a late charge with pretty much no energy. I made a 25-footer on the last hole and they said five was going to be good enough. I was pretty excited."

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

As a teenager, Perez worked at the city-owned Torrey Pines Golf Course during the school holidays.

"I did it all," he said. "I cleaned the carts, put away the carts, picked up balls on the outside of the range, picked up baskets, set up the balls in the ball shed. Sometimes I took money.

Perez, who twice missed the cut in his previous three U.S. Opens, believes his biggest advantage as a Torrey Pines veteran will be his knowledge of the fickle ocean winds.

"I know how strong the wind can play," he said. "If it's blowing really hard, then I have an idea of how to play the course. But I've never played it with greens this hard. It's going to be difficult."

(Editing by Ed Osmond)