It was Sunday, one week from the climax of golf’s greatest moment in North Carolina, and all the pieces were in place on Pinehurst Country Club’s No. 2 Course.

All the pieces except the players, that is.

The scene was set. A few thousand over-eager golf fans were walking the fairways. All the locations for the television cameras that will record the action beginning Thursday for NBC and ESPN were staked out. A handful of journalists were looking lost in the cavernous Media Pavilion.

The 27,000-square-foot merchandise tent, set up on the adjacent No. 4 Course, was packed with fans looking over the stock. The two giant TV screens in the media center were playing. One was showing the final round of the LPGA event. The other was tuned to the channel broadcasting the NASCAR race of the week. That was a dead giveaway that the "real" golfers weren’t here yet.

Donald Ross’s masterpiece, No. 2, was waiting patiently, her Bermuda grass skirt growing so fast you could almost hear it. The USGA took a look at that skirt of rough a couple of days ago and deemed it too harsh. Therefore, the feared growth will measure only three inches on Thursday instead of the earlier recommended four. The players will no doubt heave a collective sigh of relief.

The course, empty save for a few earlybird entrants getting in an extra day of practice, brought to mind a chessboard before the first move has been made. The men will be moving today, walking the course, checking the distances, trying to find some way to keep their tee shots between the swatches of rough and put their approach shots on the treacherous greens.

It isn’t going to be easy. An Open Championship never is and isn’t supposed to be. But on Sunday, four days before the first ball is struck in anger, the course looked cool and inviting. Yeah, No. 2 is ready. Bring on the pawns.

Jon Wagner, Pinehurst Resorts Championship Director, was riding around in a golf cart, looking cool, calm and collected in a floppy white hat. His work was finished. Now he was waiting.

"The big story is that we’re done," he said, smiling. "We’ve had everything done since Saturday. Now we’re just waiting for it to happen."

Scott Hoch is waiting for it to happen, too. Hoch is one of the players whose game is suited to the nuances of Pinehurst No. 2. The Raleigh native has a reputation of hitting it straight and showing well in the majors.

Hoch was here on Sunday in contrast to his normal preparations for major, or any other tournament. He came in early because he had attended a niece’s wedding in Raleigh on Saturday and figured he might as well learn what he could about the Open layout. He was surprised at what he found.

"Right now it is playing difficult at all," he said. "I had heard that it was going to really tough, but that’s not the case now. The USGA can change that, I know. They have a lot of ways to toughen it up."

Hoch tried some shots from the three-inch rough and found it inconsistent but easy to advance the ball, and he didn’t find it tough to putt the infamous turtle-back greens.

"There’s no comparison between here and Augusta National," he said. "The greens at the Masters were much faster and they used a lot more trickery. They have to do that at Augusta or we’d shoot nothing on that course. Here, the course is tough enough that they don’t have to use any tricks.

"If they get the greens up to about 12 or 13 on the Stimpmeter, they might be as difficult as Augusta National. But I don’t think they’ll do that here, at least not at the beginning."

Sunday’s round changed Hoch’s mind about No. 2.

"I have not been a fan of Pinehurst No. 2 in the past," he said, "but today I got a new perspective. I played here a lot when I was growing up, but have only played it once in the last 15 years (the 1992 Tour Players Championship). Before, I always thought the greens were too small, but I like the changes they’ve made. And now that I’m more of a control pitcher, it plays right into my hands. It also played shorter than I remembered."

Hoch played with Payne Stewart on Sunday and the two took their time, chipping and putting from several locations around the greens.

"I used to try to prepare differently for the majors," Hoch said. "I would come in early and get in as much practice as I could, then go out and play awful when the tournament started. Now I go about the majors the same way as any other tournament.

"Payne and I just had a nice, leisurely round today," he said. "It was probably the slowest practice round ever.

"I’ll probably get in a couple more before Thursday."

Hoch agrees that he should play well here.

"I feel I’ve got the game, but I’ve got to find it," he said, laughing. "I’ve taken a couple of weeks off and I’m a little rusty right now. I hope to have found it by Thursday, though."

Hoch feels the USGA will have the course playing tougher by Thursday, but isn’t sure it will be enough to keep the players from shooting under par.

"They say you don’t get it 10 under in an Open," he said, "but if it continues like this, it will be. I expect the scores to be a good bit lower than par."