Hole No. 2 which is a 472-yard, a par 4 pictured Wednesday, June 22, 2022, has a particularly sloped green and the tilted fairway. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call)

Minutes apart and 100 yards from each other Wednesday, Jim Furyk and David Duval summoned preteens inside the ropes to get the autographs they sought.

While Duval engaged in brief conversation, Furyk jogged to make a young boy work to catch up to retrieve the signed flag.

After that, the kids returned to the galleries outside the ropes at Saucon Valley Country Club while Furyk and Duval went back to dealing with the Old Course which figures to be the toughest layout the PGA Tour Champions will see in 2022.

Length. Rough. Slope. And the greens.

The challenges are everywhere inside the ropes for the 156-man field. There are no holes that scream easy. The four-day tournament will not turn into a birdie-fest.

Bernhard Langer, the most dominant 50-and-older player since Hale Irwin, gave perspective on the holes that should present the most difficulties when practice ends and the 42nd annual U.S. Senior Open begins Thursday.

““There’s a lot of holes,” he said. “Many of them, not just one or two.

“There are holes where some creeks, water comes into play, where it runs across the fairway. You’ve just got to hit quality shots from the first tee all the way to the 18th green. That’s just how it is.”

The second and 16th holes were the two toughest in previous U.S. Senior Opens in 1992 and 2000, and figure to be among the most challenging this week. The par-3 11th will be part of the conversation, too.

The 472-yard, par-4 second hole has a tilted fairway from right to left and a small green with severe slope from back to front. Par will be a good score for four days. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call)

Here is a look at those three:

The second hole combines length, fairway slope and a difficult green. Players will be thrilled to leave this week with four pars on their scorecard.

“It’s tough to hit the fairway,” two-time U.S. Open champion Ernie Els said. “It slopes right to left a bit. The bunkers are really deep, so if you get in a fairway bunker you’ll have a tough time. And then the green is undulating and quite small, so I can see that’s going to be a tough hole.”

Another tee box was added since the previous two U.S. Senior Opens to add more than 30 yards. It is a risk/reward situation for players who choose to be aggressive with driver off the tee. What one hopes to gain in length may be negated by the ball finding the left rough.

Reigning U.S. Senior Open champion Jim Furyk said if a player opts to use a club that will more likely keep the ball in the fairway, he will be hitting a long iron or fairway metal into the tricky green.

“The front of the green is kind of your easier pin where everything kind of bowls to it and you can chip from the front of the green pretty easy,” he said. “But that back left and back right pin placements are extremely difficult. So it really kind of plays like a short par-5, to be honest with you. In fact, I would venture to guess there’s a couple par-4s out here, because of the severity of the green — and that would be one of them — that in one day that might have been a par-5, because it looks like a par-5 green on a long par-4, if that makes sense.”

The 11th green will undoubtedly produce a few four-putts because of the tilt from back to front. It met with some criticism during the 1992 U.S. Senior Open when it was hot and the course was dry and fast.

It will be no picnic this week regardless of the weather.

“One of the most severe greens is probably No. 11,” Langer said, “the par-3 that can play anywhere from 220 to probably 180 in distance uphill, and the green is extremely severe.

“You have to hit it in the right spot. If you don’t, there’s going to be lots of three-putts, and as I said, maybe worse.”

Steep bunkers guard the front left and right side of the green, with over the green being perhaps the worst place to be — especially if the pin is in the back portion.

Players will be locked in on finding the correct portions on the green on every hole because that will be the difference between a true birdie putt and three-putts.

“In a U.S. Open, you’ve got to get those putts in the hole, especially the cleanup putts,” Els said. “It’s tough to get putts within four or five feet here because of the slope, so the hole-out putts you’ve got to be good at. That comes down to also ball-striking. If you can get the ball in the right area on the green, you can have easier first putts.

“When you get it out of play you’re going to be struggling to get the ball where it needs to be, and that’s where putting becomes a factor again. So it all comes down to getting your whole game to where it should be.”

The fairway is ample, but deep bunkers on each side collect wayward drives. The true fun begins on the green.

“The 16th is a shorter hole,” Els said, “but it’s going up the hill and the green is unreal.”

The size of the Old Course greens varies. No. 16 is substantial, but missing the proper portion creates havoc for even the world’s greatest putters.

“Man, I think the USGA is going to be hard-pressed to find four pin locations on that hole, to be honest with you,” Furyk said. “They’re going to have to double up on one, I’m guessing, or have one really difficult pin in there.”

The three finishing holes combine all that Saucon Valley’s Old Course offers. Beautiful, scenic, demanding.

“If you want a short walk,” Furyk said, “you walk 16, 17, 18, look at those three greens, and they’re very, very severe. So it’s going to be difficult for us — even if you’re hitting fairways, it’s going to be difficult to put irons in places where you can play from. It’s going to be difficult to two-putt in a lot of situations.

“I think you’re going to see some guys hitting putts where a first putt doesn’t get to within eight or 10 feet of the hole. Folks on TV may watch and think, ‘What in the heck is going on?’ But if you saw the severity of these greens, it’s pretty understandable.”

In addition to positioning, the greens’ speed will be difficult for players to manage. There won’t be many straight putts, so having a feel for how fast they are rolling is a necessity.

“At this stage, it’s two days into my practice and I’m still uncomfortable with the speed of them,” three-time major champion Padraig Harrington said. “But I think it would be more about the setup of particular holes.

“If they use that front right pin on [the par-4] No. 3 — I know it’s actually one of the short holes on the golf course, but hitting at that hole with any club, if you go long — I hit a couple of shots [Monday]. Unless you have the perfect lie in the bunker you’re going back into the water from the bunker over, and obviously you can spin it in the water. You kind of look at it and wonder will they use that pin position? Then you kind of go, well, it is the USGA, so they will.”

Where: Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course

Schedule: Thursday, first round; Friday, second round; Saturday, third round; Sunday, fourth round

Television: Thursday, 2-7 p.m. Peacock, 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. (tape) on Golf Channel; Friday, 2-7 p.m. Peacock, 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. (tape) on Golf Channel; Saturday, 2-3 p.m. Peacock, 3-7 p.m., Golf Channel; Sunday, 2-3 p.m. Peacock, 3-7 p.m., Golf Channel. Peacock subscription not needed for U.S. Senior Open.

Tickets: sga.org/content/usga/home-page/championships/2022/us-senior-open-2022-tickets.html

Morning Call reporter Tom Housenick can be reached at 610-820-6651 or at thousenick@mcall.com