Just how crazy are the players in this U.S. Open finding it to deal with Pinehurst No. 2’s diabolical greens?

Well, for beginners, there was Jose Maria Olazabal, the dashing Spaniard who conquered Augusta National and earned a second green jacket in April. Olazabal, or "I Lost My Ball," as Lee Trevino used to call him, was so frustrated after an opening-round 75 that he tried to punch out the hotel wall.

The wall took a standing eight-count, but Olazabal’s hand is in a cast. Broken bone, you know. Golf is such a brutal game.

One punster quipped, "If Jose had been staying at my motel, he would still be in the Open." Flimsy walls, you know.

Then there was Greg Norman, the blond-maned Australian with the matinee idol persona. Norman did hang around for two rounds, but his iron play left him stranded among the Donald Ross collection areas around the greens.

That’s right, around the greens. That’s where the Great White Shark spent all day Friday circling. This world-class golfer with a British Open Championship under his belt found No. 2 too much for his still-recovering game to handle.

Listen to this: Greg Norman was on two greens in regulation Friday. That’s right. The man hit two greens and shot 78. Well, OK, he actually "hit" a dozen greens. The ball only stopped on two of them.

Good thing he wasn’t playing Saturday, it got even worse as middle-of-the-green shots kept running and hiding.

Tiger Woods, a cat who knows a thing or three about handling tricky greens, thinks these at Pinehurst No. 2 are the cat’s meow.

"Honestly, in my opinion, I think these greens are more severe than Augusta," Woods said, "strictly because they’re all domed. At Augusta you have flat surfaces to putt on. Here you really don’t.

"Most golf holes you can feed the ball off the slopes; that’s no big deal at Augusta. But here guys are hitting good shots 10 feet from the hole and the next thing they’re 20 yards away. That doesn’t happen at Augusta."

But then they don’t hold U.S. Opens in Augusta, do they?

The funny thing, though, as crazy as these greens are driving the golfers, there is no real griping. For a change, the guys are blaming themselves instead of the golf course. No one has been quoted as saying Pinehurst No. 2 should be plowed up and turned into a merchandise pavilion.

Patience is the key word this week. Be patient. Don’t try to make things happen. Forget shooting for the flags. Hit to the center of the green and maybe you’ll get lucky. At least you should be able to two-putt from 30 feet.

I don’t want to make light of John Daly’s ongoing battle with alcoholism. But the truth is that if Daly is able to handle these greens all week and stay sober, he must have the drinking problem pretty much licked.

Heck, one of the beer distributors here guessed more than 800 cases of the cold stuff had been sold. And that was to the guys who were just watching the golfers try to hit those greens.

Tom Lehman, who came to Pinehurst with the reputation of man who could handle tough golf courses, was a humbled player after Saturday’s round of 73 left him at plus-10 for 54 holes.

"I’m looking at 73 as a par round," Lehman said after battling his way through the wind. "Some of the pins today didn’t look as if they were on the greens."

There was a lot of speculation in the weeks leading up to the Open, from visiting media and players sneaking in for practice rounds, that the rough wasn’t long enough or thick enough to be a factor. Now everyone knows why.

As USGA official Tom Meeks said earlier this week: "If any of the players say this course is going to play easy, they’d better be prepared to eat their words."

Along with a slice of humble pie.

Too bad Patsy Cline isn’t around to sing her old country hit. A lot of good golfers are going crazy over these greens.