As the players in the U.S. Open approached the 18th green Sunday at Pinehurst No. 2, many made note of the pin location - the "Payne Stewart pin" from the final day of the 1999 Open.

"It put chills up your spine," said Chris Nallen, a qualifier who was the first to play the 18th in the final round. "It was exactly where Payne made it."

Well, not exactly.

Mike Davis, senior director of competitions for the U.S. Golf Association, said an old hole plug prevented the USGA from using the identical hole location from '99 in the back, right side of the green in Sunday's final round of the 105th U.S. Open.

"It's close to it but not the same," Davis said. "Because of the old plug, we moved it about 3 feet."

In the '99 Open, Stewart one-putted the last three holes at No. 2 to edge Phil Mickelson by a shot. He drained an uphill, 15-foot par putt at the 18th to finish off his pulsating victory.

Davis, who helped set up No. 2 for this Open and will be responsible for future Open course setups, said all 18 hole locations Sunday were basically the same as in the final round of '99.

"We tried to get everything as close as we could," he said. "We did move a few ever so slightly away from the edges. But the plan was for it to play much like it did in the last round in '99."

Few players had complaints about the hole location at the 18th. It was a tribute, they realized, to Stewart, who died four months after his Open victory. But some of the others ...

"It's like being at a blackjack table," John Daly said after a 76. "On 50 percent, you can do something good."

Veteran Bob Tway, a former PGA champion, included the 18th pin as one of 12 on the course he would put in either the "OK" or "can-get-at" category.

"It seemed overall the pins were pretty accessible," said Tway, who posted an early 75.

Tway called the pin at the par-4 third hole "treacherous," with the cup cut on a knob in the back, left of the green, and he said the front, left pin at the par-4 fifth was a tough one. As for the par-3 15th, he just said the middle, right location, close to a slope on the green, was "tough, very tough."

Daly, taking a long drag off a cigarette after the round, smiled and said, "We survived."

"The greens were consistent, but some of the pins were brutal," he said. "I hit a 9-iron at the [par-5] 10th, it hit 5 feet from the pin and I walked off with a 7.

"And 15 ... that was so brutal it almost makes you laugh. Even the cup wasn't even [level]. You can't be short, and if you're a bit too long, you're off the back of the green."

Bob Estes and Charles Howell III hit tee shots at the 15th that landed within a few feet of each other. Estes' ball stayed on the green, leaving him a 25-foot putt for birdie that he made. Howell's tee ball was slightly shorter than that of Estes, and the ball rolled back off the front of the green. He bogeyed.

Later, Sergio Garcia duplicated Howell's shot at the 15th, standing on the tee and looking about in amazement as his ball landed on the green, then slowly trickled down and off the front. He bogeyed, too.

Davis Love III, who had a final-round 69, said the hole locations were about the same all four rounds of the championshIp.

"Very hard," he said. "There were four or five every day that you just looked at and would go, 'How can you imagine ever putting one there.' You could set it up where you give us the chance to make birdies or where we're struggling to make pars."

The second hole Sunday, Love said, had one of the "struggling-to-make-par" locations.

"No matter what you did, you have a good chance to make bogey," he said.

Jerry Kelly didn't point any fingers at the USGA after a final-round 80. A year ago, the outspoken PGA Tour pro bristled and made some terse comments about the setup of Shinnecock Hills on Sunday -- hole locations, pins, dead greens, everything --after an 81.

Not Sunday. At the 18th, he rolled in an 8-footer for birdie to a hole location he said was the one he played in the last round in 1999 -- the one used every Sunday since '99 on No. 2.

"They weren't going to screw that up," Kelly said of the USGA. "It was definitely the same pin."

Well, almost.