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PINEHURST, N. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] .C. -- Bubba Watson has one thing going for him: So far, nobody else has a better chance at winning a second major this year. "Ive already got one," he quipped Tuesday. The two-time Masters champion came to Pinehurst this week for the U.S. Open hoping to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to win the years first two majors. "Any time you have that chance, its been a good year, because that means youve done well early," Watson said. The worlds third-ranked player is trying to join that short list of players to win both the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year. Its only happened six times and before Woods, nobody had done it since Jack Nicklaus in 1972. Watson is certainly hoping this attempt goes better than the last one. Two years ago at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, he missed the cut after shooting an 8-over-par 78 in his opening round. Through the years, the U.S. Open has provided a particularly vexing test for Watson, who has missed the cut in three of his seven Opens. His only top-10 finish came in 2007 when he tied for fifth at Oakmont -- perhaps the toughest of the courses that have staged golfs national championship. "A U.S. Open brings out challenges that were not used to, challenges that we can only take once a year or we would all find new jobs if we had to do it every week," Watson said. And a different set of them awaits this week at the revamped Pinehurst No. 2 course that looks nothing like it did when Payne Stewart (1999) and Michael Campbell (2005) won Opens here. Watson it called "a second-shot golf course" and said it bears no resemblance to the Augusta National course hes twice conquered "except its 18 holes, thats about it." The multi-million-dollar restoration to Donald Ross original design, removed the rough and left only two cuts of grass -- fairway and green. Birdies figure to once again be rare at the U.S. Open, where bogeys arent necessarily bad and the winner is often the one who takes the smartest shots and makes the fewest mistakes. Hell find out over the next few days if his daring "Bubba golf" style will work on a course that has only two par-5s. Watson leads all PGA Tour players with an average driving distance of 314 yards -- a distinct advantage at the various courses on the tour. But maybe not at Pinehurst No. 2, where sandy hardpan, wiregrass and weeds make up what used to be the rough. "Its all about the tee shots. Im going to try to lay farther back than normal, because its still iffy hitting in that -- I dont know what they call it, rough, dirt, sand. ... But its going to be iffy. You dont know what kind of lies youre going to get." Get through that and out of the fairways, and those notoriously tricky turtleback greens -- which a smiling Watson repeatedly called "unfriendly" -- await. The "U.S. Open is challenging you at all levels. If you want to be a man and hit driver off that tee, you can," he said. "If you want to lay back and try to play smarter, you can. ... You have the ability to do it, now can you do it at that moment, is what the key is. "So I think the U.S. Open is doing that, its just thats what theyre trying to create," he added. "Theyre trying to create a challenge for everybody, and you can play it aggressively or you can play it smartly." [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] .com Tours Nova Scotia Open. The 27-year-old Sloan, a former Texas-El Paso player from Calgary matched first-round leader Rodriguez at 10-under 132 on Ashburn Golf Clubs New Course. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] .J. -- The New York Jets have promoted Tony Sparano Jr. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] . Then youve got to worry about the other up and coming teams in the two weaker divisions in the "Junior Circuit".HEERENVEEN, Netherlands - Canadas Denny Morrison won a mens World Cup 1,000-metre speedskating race Friday. The native of Fort St. John, B.C., finished with a time of one minute 8.91 seeconds. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]. American Shani Davis was second in 1:09.13 while Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands took third in 109:25. Edmontons Jamie Gregg finished 14th in 1:11.31. ' ' '