If you allow yourself, you can embrace the pure ridiculous nature of the numbers at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic this week.

For instance, there have been 1,017 more birdies in the Hope's first two days than bogeys. There have been 43 eagles in two days. There were nine rounds of 63 or better on the first day, tying a tour record.

Pat Perez is 20 under for two rounds, better than any pro in the history of the PGA Tour, and he's still fighting off contenders.

Perez said 40 under might be in play by Sunday. But Briny Baird said the winning total definitely won't be 50 under, which would have been an absurd statement Tuesday but seems less silly today.

Welcome back to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

“This is what Bob Hope is about, I think, to make birdies and go low,” said Richard S. Johnson, 16 under for two rounds and hanging around the bottom of the first page of the leader board this week.

Somewhere out in the golf world today there are likely a few people snickering about the almost cartoonish numbers put up in the first 36 holes of the Hope this week.

Those people don't understand the Hope.

Baseball has its hitter's parks, like mile-high Coors Field in Denver and cozy Fenway Park in Boston, where it looks like a hitter can reach out and touch the Green Monster in left field. Those are places where offense rules over defense, and the fans love every ringing double and cheap home run.

The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic is the PGA Tour's version of a hitter's park. And just like a 10-8 game at Coors Field, the Hope seems to be at its best when players are breaking scoring records.

Sure, the purists will argue that it is the U.S. Open, or the anti-Hope, where players are truly tested. At the Open, 72 holes at even par is a winning score. At the Hope, 72 holes at even par makes people wonder if a player is injured.

But there ought to be room in professional golf for both the grinding courses set-up of the U.S. Open and the sprint for double-digit under par rounds at the Hope.

People who hate the blood bank full of red numbers on the Hope leader board always complain that the Hope's courses are too easy. OK, so Bermuda Dunes isn't Winged Foot and SilverRock isn't Carnoustie. The rough is down to help amateurs get around the course, and the pins are in the middle of the greens for the same reason. At least the pins will be tougher for Sunday's pros-only round.

But it's more than just the golf courses, which can be nasty in a desert wind. The courses are in perfect shape. The greens are as smooth and true as any putting surfaces on the PGA Tour. And there is the wind, or lack of wind, through two days.

Don't kid yourself that this is only about Classic Club leaving the Hope rotation. Sure, Classic Club is a tough course, but it can be pretty windy at PGA West and Bermuda Dunes, too. It just hasn't been windy this week.

So the scoring this week is a kind of perfect storm at the Hope. Great conditions, fun courses and pros who are salivating over a chance to make a ton of birdies.

If there was one major concern about the Hope in the last few years — other than the discussions of the weather patterns at Classic Club — it was that the character of the tournament had changed. The event had gone away from the shorter, tighter courses of the old days, where birdies flowed like martinis, and put in bigger, wider and longer courses. The Hope was best, critics claimed, when players were disappointed with a par.

At least in that respect, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic is back this week. Besides, one U.S. Open a year is enough.

Larry Bohannan covers golf for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at 778-4633. Read Bohannan's blog throughout the Hope at mydesert.com/bobhope.