The identification process that year concluded with Hale Irwin's seven-over-par total being good enough for victory, while just eight sub-par rounds were recorded in the championship. They called it 'The Massacre at Winged Foot'.

Then at the famous New York venue in 1984, Fuzzy Zoeller pointedly remarked that winning was special not because he beat Greg Norman, as well as a high-class field, but because he reckoned he put one over on the golf course.

And it's not as if the USGA has kissed and made up with its competitors on the evidence of the debacle at Shinnecock Hills two years ago when the organisers lost control of the course to such an extent that the seventh green had to be hosed down at regular intervals during the final round to prevent the grass from dying under the players' feet.

Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia both played reasonably well that day and failed to break 80, while rumour has it that Billy Mayfair, a fivetime winner on the PGA Tour, is still in therapy after his 89.

So, the US Open does not exactly represent a gentle reintroduction for someone who has spent nearly 10 weeks away from the tour, and neither is Winged Foot the ideal place to roadtest a swing which hasn't experienced the heat of competition since the Masters in early April.

But then that someone is not just anyone.

Tiger Woods doesn't lack for motivation going into the second major of the season following the recent death of his father and mentor, however, what he clearly does lack is match practice.

Around the time of Earl Woods's funeral, all Tiger would say was that, "I'll be ready to play when it's time." The presumption was that he would return for Jack Nicklaus's tournament, the Memorial, as much to exhaust the media interest in how life has been since his dad's passing, and to clear the way for a more golf-oriented inquisition at the US Open.

His decision to stay away has raised serious doubts over whether he will be competitive by his own rarefied standards when play gets under way at Winged Foot on Thursday. But in 2003, Woods took close to eight weeks off following knee surgery and came back to win the Buick Invitational. And this year, after a six-week break, he kicked off with a victory again at the Buick Invitational before travelling to Dubai where he also won.

"For anyone else on tour, it would be a real challenge, " said Phil Mickelson, "but for him, I don't think the same rules apply. I don't think it's going to be a real challenge for him unfortunately."

If he is correct about the rules being different, Mickelson is overly diplomatic when he suggests that Woods won't be facing a challenge. Winged Foot is not just a classic major championship course with its bottleneck fairways and savagely sloping greens, its protection extends to dense rough which forgives and forgets about as readily as the Reverend Ian Paisley.

Although Padraig Harrington was a much less accomplished player when he missed the cut in the USPGA championship at Winged Foot in 1997, he went home crushed by the experience which he now regards as a pivotal moment in his career. "I played my first two US majors at Congressional and Winged Foot, and they beat me up completely. I was totally trodden on. They are the sole reason why I spent the last 10 years trying to totally remodel my swing. I couldn't get around those courses to save my life. They were just so difficult.

"At that time, I was a short-game specialist, but you can't chip and putt out of six inches of rough on to firm, fast greens. I found that out quickly enough." Harrington also knows that difficult and all as Winged Foot was nine years ago, no one will get within an ass's roar of Davis Love's 11-under-par winning total this time.

"The course will play a lot harder than it did at the '97 PGA, " Woods offered after a practice round a fortnight ago. "The greens are brutal, you simply have to keep the ball below the hole."

Even if the USGA employs the very back tees and extends the course to its full 7,264 yards, Woods's driver won't be needed at every turn, however, he will need to replicate the sort of precision he demonstrated last year at Pinehurst when he struck the ball majestically only to be betrayed by his touch on the greens.

In fact, it was much the same story at the recent Masters where Woods hardly made a putt of any consequence in the final round, and still only trailed Mickelson by three strokes. His frustration was such that he sent the offending putter to be adjusted by the renowned designer Scotty Cameron.

While there is a precedent for Woods winning after a period away from the game, no comeback will be as emotionally charged as this one, and yet no player is as mentally strong. To go into a major little more than a month following Earl's death with the opportunity of closing out the tournament on Father's Day is perversely the sort of test Woods will relish.

If his focus will be as constricted as ever, the stumbling form of some of Woods's rivals won't have gone unnoticed. Vijay Singh hasn't finished in the top 40 in his last four events since the Masters, and he hasn't won for nearly a year. For a while, every time Singh teed it up, it seemed he would win and despite a revival this weekend at Westchester it appears that last season's magic has evaporated.

Ernie Els is also a long way from the zone after shooting an 81 in the final round of the Memorial and then withdrawing from the Barclays Classic. "Honestly, I'm not hitting shots all over the planet, " he said last week. Like Els, Sergio Garcia is also struggling, while Retief Goosen has been off-colour since the Masters.

Mickelson is the exception, and the lefthander is now the only player in the world other than Woods who is defined by how he performs in the majors. He has his sights on a third title in succession, and he and Woods have won four out of the last five championships.

"Winning the Masters obviously already makes it a great year, but I also see it as an opportunity to do something even more special, " said Mickelson who will use two drivers as he did to such good effect at Augusta if the conditions are damp, but will revert to one if the course is running fast. "As I've had success, I've been more inclined to work harder and prepare harder for upcoming majors. I feel like I've a good game plan going in, I feel like I've got the right shots, and I think I'll be ready."

There is the tantalising prospect then of the in-form, ultra-confident Mickelson going up against his one-time nemesis who will be desperate to honour his father's memory on a penal course which is guaranteed to fray nerve ends, and because he has so far jumped every hurdle put in his way, the advantage is with Woods.

By right, no player should be a contender at the US Open after more than two months on the sidelines, but no one is as driven and no one is as conscious of the imprint he makes on golf history.

Given the demands of Winged Foot, and given the circumstances, a week from now, we might well be watching Tiger Woods's greatest triumph.