Expect unexpected at U.S. Open, not Tiger, Phil, Bubba SAN FRANCISCO - Tiger Woods or Jason Dufner? Phil Mickelson or Hunter Mahan? Bubba Watson or Bo Van Pelt? A giant - or a giant slayer? At the Olympic Club, the U.S. Open scoreboard is pretty emphatic: Giant Slayers 4, Giants 0. "In some ways," U.S. Golf Assn. Executive Director Mike Davis said, "you remember more about who didn't win - what great legend didn't win an Open here versus who did win." Ben Hogan couldn't outlast Jack Fleck in 1955. Arnold Palmer didn't shut the door on Billy Casper in 1966, even with a seven-shot lead and only the back nine to play. Tom Watson (falling to Scott Simpson in 1987) and Payne Stewart (Lee Janzen was the 1998 winner) didn't trip up so dramatically, but they fell nonetheless. Step right up, Mr. Woods. You, too, Mr. Mickelson. The "Graveyard of Legends" awaits. "I feel like I've developed a good game plan as to how I want to play the golf course," Mickelson said. I don't know if it will win. You just don't know what the other guys are going to shoot or how they're going to play. Then again, that might just sum up the PGA Tour season in all its unpredictability. Fresh faces abound, young veterans are making their mark and no lead can be considered all that safe anymore. Mix in Olympic's history of leaving big names in the San Francisco gloom, and the conditions appear ripe for another surprise in the tournament that begins Thursday. "If it continues this legacy again," Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee suggested, "will it be a giant-killer - and who is the giant in this game?" The giants are the easy ones to identify: Woods and Mickelson. Toss in world No.1 Luke Donald and defending champion Rory McIlroy if you'd like. Maybe even Masters titleholder Bubba Watson, his green jacket now a complement to his big-stick artistry and growing following. Less obvious are the potential giant slayers. Who has the game to take on Olympic's against-the-grain fairways, small greens, Pacific chill - and Open pressure? "You're going to have a stretch of holes where you're going to hit it poorly," Steve Stricker said, "or maybe not even hit it that poorly and maybe it just goes in the rough or into a bad lie." Maybe it's Dufner, the 35-year-old grinder whose two wins this year share top honors with Woods and Mahan. Perhaps more impressive, they came on bookend weeks around his wedding day. Now that's blocking out distractions. "I've felt really good with my game since about March," Dufner said. I've been on a good roll here. Maybe it's Justin Rose, a hit-or-miss Open candidate with two top-10 finishes and four missed cuts. In the past nine months, he has captured a FedEx Cup playoff event and a World Golf Championships stop. Perhaps it's Matt Kuchar, not exactly under the radar anymore after winning the Players Championship. He was 14th at Olympic as a fresh-scrubbed amateur in 1998, but needed another decade to hit his stride as a pro. It could be Van Pelt, like Dufner a late bloomer with a steady game and even temperament. He has posted three top-20 finishes in his past five majors, including a tie for 14th at last year's Open. "There's great players, and then there's great Open players," said NBC's Johnny Miller, an Olympic Club member since his youth. The Open players are usually guys that hardly have a pulse. It's a necessary trait to be a giant slayer. And Olympic seems the perfect setting.