Pinehurst is on the threshold of its finest hours — 168 of them, to be precise. The anticipation leading to these seven days has been excruciating.

Christmas for a 9-year-old? A piece of cake compared to this.

Some people remember where they were when JFK was shot. I remember where I was when I heard Pinehurst had landed the Open. I was in Bellaire, Mich., in June of 1993, writing a magazine feature on the Shanty Creek golf resort when Jerry Diamond, a golf official with ClubCorp, announced with a big smile on his face, "We got the Open!"

What year?" someone asked.

"Nineteen ninety-nine," he said.

Ninety-nine? That’s a century away. It’ll never get here, I thought.

Since then, a million questions have zigged and zagged through my brain. Finally, answers are nigh.

Who will hole out from a bunker like Ben Hogan did greenside on 11 in 1940, jumpstarting his first professional tour victory?

Who will be hole high on the 600-yard 10th like John Daly was in the 1991 Tour Championship?

What would Richard Tufts think if he saw all the logos on golf shirts and signposts and tents? I tend to think he’d roll over in his grave, but his old friend Bill Campbell once said he thought Tufts would have grown with the times—at least to a degree.

What elements of sportsmanship will surface, like Tom Kite calling a penalty on himself in the 1978 Colgate/Hall of Fame because his ball moved an iota of a inch on the fifth green?

How many mumblings will be heard at cocktail parties about ClubCorp and tee times and the lawsuit over the Pinehurst name by people whose property has doubled and tripled in value in 10 or 15 years because of the sturdiness of the resort and its owners’ stewardship?

Who will visit the undertaker behind the eighth or 14th greens after overly aggressive approach shots? Whose innocent-looking wedge shot will light on the front of the 12th green and imperceptibly slide backward and gather some steam and roll and roll and roll 20 yards back into the fairway? Will anyone hit driver and sand wedge on the 489-yard fifth hole, as I witnessed a bear named John Slaughter do in the 1982 NCAA Championships?

Will the USGA have a Waterloo green this year like the 18th on Friday last year at Olympic?

How many adult beverages will be peddled this week at the Pine Crest Inn?

How many contestants will rail about the 16th being played as a par-four this week—"That green was never designed to accept a long-iron," they’ll say—ignoring the fact they’d go for it with a long-iron were it played as a par-five?

How bad will slow play be on Thursday and Friday as golfers stare down short-game challenges the likes of which they’ve never seen in an Open?

Will anyone think to flag down USGA honchos present and past like David Fay, Grant Spaeth, Judy Bell and Reg Murphy and thank them for believing in Pinehurst back when others said it’s too remote and too hot and the greens are no good and it’ll never be like it used to be?

Will Hugh Ferguson, the starter at Royal Dornoch in the highlands of Scotland, find his way to Pinehurst this week as he’s dreamed about for several years?

Can Tiger Woods be patient enough?

Will David Duval’s high fades be the answer to avoid missing greens?

Will Jose Maria Olazabal or Colin Montgomerie and their international backgrounds have the short-game wizardry to win?

Can North and South champions like Davis Love and Corey Pavin, like Hal Sutton and Curtis Strange, like rekindle the old Pinehurst magic?

Who will be the first to putt his golf ball off of a green? And will he have the sense of humor to regurgitate the feat later like Seve Ballesteros once did in answering the question, "How did you four-putt that green?" Seve answered, "I miss. I miss. I miss. I make."

Will anyone lose a golf ball?

Will anyone hit one in the water on 16?

Will Jon Wagner and Reg Jones and the staff at Pinehurst Championship Management get any sleep?

Is there any way NBC might pull out the old theme song ABC used for its Open intros back in the 1970s and ’80s? To me henceforth and forever hearing Barry White’s "Love Theme" hastens memories of Opens past watched from the comfort of my den.

Just how well will the Penn G-2 greens hold up if it’s 95 for several days running?

And how soft will they get if it rains all day mid-week?

Will the local caddies get any bags?

Will the presentation of this year’s Open—everything outside the ropes—be as first-rate as organizers plan?

And when is the Open coming back to Pinehurst, anyway?

Lee Pace, who lives in Chapel Hill, is a free-lance writer and author of the book "Pinehurst Stories."