Jan. 23 -- Torrey Pines is one of the most famous, most demanding, and most affordable world-class golf clubs in the world. PGA Head Professional Joe DeBock talks about overnight lines for tee-times, Phil and Tiger, the 2008 U.S. Open, and how his golf course is suited for you.

PGA.com: Joe, the PGA TOUR season starts each year in Hawaii, but many people argue it doesn't start until Tiger and Phil tee it up. By that standard, your course kicks off the season. Do you ever think about the greater attention because of the players that love playing your course?

DeBock: It actually is something that we discuss, mostly just how great it is to know that the golf world is watching. I think television ratings indicate how popular the tournament is. Of course, Tiger and Phil are huge reasons, but we'd like to think the course is a nice attraction too. There definitely is a buzz in the air while we anticipate showing off our facility.

PGA.com: I'm sure it's a crazy time, but at least there's nothing going on here at Torrey Pines after the Buick Invitational, right?

DeBock: Just a little tournament called the U.S. Open. In fact, pretty much the next day after the Buick Invitational ends, we'll start preparing the course for the U.S. Open. We'll build a new set of tee boxes for the range so that we can create more parking areas where the current range tee boxes are. We'll put in nine miles of road, nine miles of fences; the logistics of putting on such an event are massive as I'm sure you can imagine. But it's a challenge we embrace and one we'll do very well.

PGA.com: As one of the most high-profile, accessible, and affordable golf layouts in the world, you manage one of the great golf destinations anywhere. But the U.S. Open isn't exactly known for their player friendly designs. How do you reconcile the two?

DeBock: It's a challenge, it really is. In fact, Rees Jones recently renovated the South course and it's going to be an even sterner test now than it was before. It's still a very playable course in how we will typically maintain it, but as we move closer to the U.S. Open, and the rough grows higher, the fairways narrow, the greens get faster -- yeah, it will be a beast.

PGA.com: Unfortunately, one of the big news stories from your area as of late has been natural disasters. A few months ago, San Diego had to deal with those incredible wildfires. A couple of weeks ago, it was torrential rains and flooding. How did you guys make it through those?

DeBock: The rains actually helped the course. We weren't drenched like some areas north of here that had the flooding problems, but we had a good hard soaking rain that flushed out a lot of impurities in the grass. The course looks spectacular right now and I think you'll see that as you watch the Buick Invitational. As for the wildfires, that was very tough. For the workers, everyone became displaced for a day or two or three if not more. We had one employee who had significant damage to her home, but no one here suffered a total loss. And not as important but still very significant, it hurt our business here. Not only was the course closed a few days, but tourism fell obviously, and understandably, so did golf among the local players. We're doing fine now, but it has been quite the last few months.

PGA.com: You have lines of players ready to play each day, some of whom even camp out overnight? But you don't get too behind on pace of play, do you?

DeBock: It goes along with when we talked about the difficulty of the course. The harder the course plays, the longer the rounds are going to take. Right now, the rough is high enough that it's really tough to find your golf ball if you hit it in there. Furthermore, the South course is cart path only so that's going to add a few minutes. We have a marshall program and they do what they can, but you can only do so much. We encourage players to be mindful of others and to play ready golf, but unfortunately, it's not abnormal for a round of golf to take five hours on the South course. The North course will tend to play 20-30 minutes quicker.

PGA.com: So you are in beautiful Southern California, you can stare out at the Pacific Ocean, you can tee it up at Torrey Pines every day if you wanted. But the highlight of your career is?

DeBock: Working with PGA.com! [laughing]. I am very aware of what a great environment I get to work in and am really appreciative. I've been here over twenty years and have done just about every job there is to do, so I feel good about having worked my way up the ranks. But yes, no matter how you look at it, it's really a wonderful place to be and I'm grateful to be in this position.