A little tip if you’re heading to No. 2 today. Go check out the eighth hole.

Better yet, check out the back of the green. It’s a good place to be if you’re curious how the players are going to handle the challenge of the greens at the U.S. Open.

"If you want to go watch and really get a good area to see where they’re doing a lot of different things, go to the back of the eighth green," Paul Jett said Tuesday. "From the back of the eighth green yesterday, I saw everything from 3-woods to putters."

Deciding which club to use if the players aren’t safely on the green only raises the ante when it comes to solving the riddle of the No. 2 greens. Jett should know.

He’s been No. 2 greens superintendent for the last several years, and can probably describe in his sleep every swale and false edge of the greens that grace the course.

The taming of the greens, and how the players and the weather would go about doing that, was one of the hot topics around the course yesterday. The weather forecast for the next several days leans toward the wet side with showers and thunderstorms predicted.

Long before the Open arrived in Pinehurst, the greens were predicted to be the greatest problems facing the best players in the world.

Tiger Woods agrees that the greens are the true test of the course.

"This golf course from tee-to-green is very simple; it’s around the green where it becomes complicated," Tiger Woods said.

The rain may be a wild card when it comes to how complicated those greens will be, but Jett believes the greens can withstand a little rain. A lot of rain is a different story.

"My thoughts are if we do have some rain, we do have ways to get water out of the putting green," Jett said. "We can mechanically vacuum the water out of the putting surface.

"But the surface that we would like to have would be one where we can control the amount of water that goes on.

"It’s better not to have uncontrollable amounts of rain put on the golf course, which will, no matter how well it drains, soften it more than what I think it needs to be this week."

Unable to control the rain hasn’t dampened Jett’s attitude toward the greens, and the way they will handle approach shots this week. Conventional wisdom says don’t get aggressive when taking aim at No. 2 greens, and to be patient when it comes to attacking the pins. Even if it’s the best players in the world.

Jett has watched the players closely with an eye toward how the ball reacts on the greens, and barring excessive rain, he still feels like the players will have to avoid firing at the pins.

The pros may put a lot more spin on the ball, but Jett has worked hard to take that into consideration.

"I’ve tried to gear the management of these greens over the last month to where the ball, when it comes in, even with the amount of spin these guys put on it, it will take at least one big hop before it starts to check," Jett said.

Noting the fact that he had watched several players hitting up on the 18th and fifth greens earlier in the day, Jett said the balls were taking a first bounce of 15 to 18 feet before stopping.

"So the good shots will be rewarded," Jett said, "but the player that thinks he can throw the ball all the way to the pin is going to have a 20-footer, 25-footer coming back.

"So it’s always, I think, a fairly safe bet that most balls need to land short of these pins, and just plan on one big hop."

Once again Woods agrees.

"Over the green here is not good, and that’s the way it’s been designed," Woods said. "Short is fine; you can get up and down from short of the green. Over the green, you can get up-and-down, but your chances are definitely reduced."

If you get over near the back of the eighth green during tomorrow’s practice round, watch the decisions made by the golfers when it comes to choosing how to play their approach shots.

If they’re stopping the ball near the hole, you might just be witnessing one of the possible winners of this year’s Open. Especially if it does keep raining.