Some months ago, and in line with the type of preparation that has made him the world's number one, Tiger Woods found time in his schedule to sneak in a quick visit to Southern Hills Country Club. It was a preview of sorts, a refresher to discover the nuances of a course that had changed significantly since he first played it as a tour "rookie" in the 1996 Tour Championship.
"Tiger and his caddie (Steve Williams) ran through it real quick, just got acquainted with the golf course again. One thing he did tell me when he finished, however, was that the greens were `pure'," recalled club professional Dave Bryan.
Such preparations may not be the preserve of Woods, as a number of other US tour players have also made advance visits to the course, but nobody prepares for a tournament - particularly a major - with quite the same methodical instincts as he does. This week, at a time when he equals Greg Norman's record of 96 successive weeks as number one, Woods has arrived in the State of Oklahoma as a raging hot favourite - again! - in search of an unprecedented fifth successive major.
A sequence that started in Pebble Beach last June when he stormed to a 15stroke victory also took in the British Open (when he completed his career Grand Slam), and then became only the second player in the modern era to win three majors in the same calendar year when defending the US PGA title continued with his win in the US Masters in March when he achieved the so-called "Tiger Slam".
In advance of any major, Woods tends to work on shots that he will require on any given course. Prior to Augusta, it was a "sweeping hook" that he used specifically at the short Par five 13th hole. Here, when queried as to what specific shot he had been working on, he replied: "One that will get the ball on the fairway."
"To be honest with you, the US Open always is very difficult. You have to shape the ball both ways. Fortunately, we tend to get a lot of wind down in Florida and I enjoy being creative and having to shape shots. Anyone can play when it is calm. To go out there and play in the winds, it is a lot of fun to hit different shots and execute them. That's the beauty of playing in the wind," said Woods.
Although temperatures are expected to nudge up towards 90 degrees over the coming days, the wind is also expected to be a factor - and Vijay Singh, the last man to win a major before Woods took over his dominant reign, believes that the rough will seriously come into play because of narrowed fairways and the influence of the wind.
"One factor that's going to really make it difficult this year is that you've got Bermuda fairways and Bermuda rough. I think the people who do play or know about Bermuda rough and fairways, they'll know how difficult it is, especially on a US Open golf course if you miss it off the fairway and it goes into rough. We found that out at Pinehurst (site of the 1999 US Open) how difficult it was to get out of the rough there," insisted Singh.
Woods, meanwhile, has been paired with Thomas Bjorn - the last player to go head-to-head and beat him, in the Dubai Desert Classic in March - and US amateur champion Jeff Quinney for the opening two rounds of the championship.
The two Irish players in the 156-man field, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke, have been given good draws. Harrington, who has taken a two-week break from tournament play since the Volvo PGA at Wentworth after efforts to gain an invite into last week's St Jude Classic on the US Tour proved unsuccessful, has been paired with ex-Ryder Cup captain Tom Kite and Paul Azinger.
Clarke, who discovered some form over the weekend in the English Open where he secured a top-five finish, will start out in his quest for a first major win accompanied for the opening 36 holes by Kirk Triplett and Harrison Frazar. This is Clarke's sixth tournament in succession but, after a frustrating few weeks in which he was dogged by inconsistency, indications from the Forest of Arden over the weekend are that his game is finally coming together.
Clarke and Lee Westwood flew out yesterday for their first visit to Southern Hills, and another to make the trip was Colin Montgomerie, who was forced to pull out of the English Open because of a back injury. For someone who has been blessed with an injury-free career to date, the back ailment has come as quite a shock to Monty - particularly coming in the days before the US Open, the major he estimates is most suited to his game.
The 37-year-old Scot had three intensive sessions with a London doctor over the weekend in an effort to fight off the back injury and his manager Guy Kinnings remarked: "We are very happy with how the treatment and the rest has gone." Montgomerie has twice finished second and also has a third-place finish in the US Open but is without a win in Europe since last year's Volvo PGA. His last success came in a tournament in Australia in January.
As it is, the task facing 155 players is how to stop Woods continuing his dominance of the major circuit. The 25-year-old has arrived here seeking to become the first player to successfully defend his US Open title since Curtis Strange at Oak Hill in 1989; the first player to win the year's first two majors since Jack Nicklaus in 1972, and the first player to win an unprecedented fifth consecutive major.
