In the aftermath, the sheer brutality of the courses, rather than the winner, was the story.

But 2007 is different.

Because before this US Open, Oakmont on the outskirts of Pittsburgh was the story, and as the second major of the season comes to its gutwrenching close this evening, it still is the story.

The first-round leader, Nick Dougherty, called it "barbaric", while Rory Sabbatini scratched his head before describing it as "Shinnecock on steroids". Henrik Stenson, whose blend of power and finesse should be ideal for the demands of America's national championship appeared to be a beaten man before the off when he said that the "only place you can be really aggressive is on the range".

The Swede predictably missed the cut.

Meanwhile, Johnny Miller, perpetrator of that sacrilegious 63 here in 1973 and perhaps the one person to blame for the USGA's sadistic tendencies ever since, simply insisted that Oakmont was the "greatest course in the world".

As for Tiger Woods, who should know a thing or two about demanding courses, with a CV that includes major victories at Bethpage, Pebble Beach and Augusta, he made the point that even during the Masters he is able to switch off for the occasional shot.

"You can close your eyes and probably hit it either in the fairway or on the green, it's an easy shot, " he explained. "On this golf course there are no easy shots, and no easy birdies. On most courses you're going to pick up a cheap birdie here and there.

At Oakmont there are none."

Sometimes the attention paid to what the USGA might or might not do to a course detracts from the tournament itself. When the game is essentially about who and about how many, interminable waxing about the speed of the greens and the length of the rough can leave you cold. However, there is no trickery here, no agronomist's sleight of hand. Oakmont is the most difficult course on the planet no matter what the USGA and its army of greenkeepers get up to. "If you want to test yourself, this is where you come to find out, " said Miller earlier in the week. "You might be a golfer, but this is where you'll find out if you're a player."

Oakmont is not a thing of beauty, certainly not in the way that Augusta is golf 's ultimate piece of eye candy.

When the two sections of the course are linked by bridges over the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and when several holes are played against the constant drone of traffic, you could hardly call Oakmont an oasis. But following the removal of almost 5,000 trees . . . no Green lobby here . . . in order to recreate the original inland links design concept, the place has a rugged majesty about it.

Certainly, from the high point of the clubhouse, the open vista of thousands of spectators streaming over the course below is more reminiscent of a British Open venue than the shady, treeline fairways of Winged Foot.

Oakmont could not be termed a classic American lay-out either. Built by the autocratic Henry C Fownes, whose interest was obviously more in a course's degree of difficulty than in its visual appeal, in the early 1900s, Oakmont has exactly the same 18 greens today as when Fownes finished his labours.

Even if the claim that Oakmont is rendered easier for the world's best professional players than for its long-suffering members is more myth than anything else, the burning topic here concerns whether the course is a fair test. It happens to be fair, but the answer is that it doesn't really matter whether it's fair or not, because fair is subjective.

After all how can a links course which can kick a good shot off line, and an errant shot towards the hole, be deemed truly fair? So it is with Oakmont where on occasion there are sickening bounces, and where on occasion a ball that pitches six inches too far on one of the viciously sloping greens will run off into the rough. Paul Casey proved what is possible with skill, nerve and some luck by recovering from an opening 77 to shoot a magnificent 66 in the second round.

As in most of championship golf, those are the vagaries, and they tend to even out over the four days. "A US Open course is set up to test a player's mental ability, his mental toughness, his ability to grind, " said Jim Hyler of the USGA. "It should be the most rigorous test in golf." At Oakmont, the USGA has found its spiritual home.

Watching Padraig Harrington hit his tee shot at the final hole during the first round was a perfect example of the course's demands. So far, the uphill, 477-yard 18th has proved to be the most difficult hole of this relentless stretch, and mindful of the narrowness of the landing area between the fairway bunkers, Harrington opted for a three wood instead of his driver.

The three wood was slightly pulled, veering barely 10 yards off line, yet it ended up buried in one of the almost invisible ditches to the left of the fairway. On most European or PGA Tour courses, Harrington would have had some sort of shot out of the rough, but this time he was forced to take a penalty drop.

For much of the season, mistakes are not punished. At the US Open, and at Oakmont, they invariably are.

Graeme McDowell mentioned that after a particularly fraught first nine holes on Thursday his caddie, Ken Conboy, had to "talk him in off the ledge". This week, most of the players, most of the time, have been on their own personal ledges. The likes of Adam Scott, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, Davis Love, an injured Phil Mickelson and Harrington had all fallen by Friday evening.

If there is a complaint from the leading players, it usually concerns the current obsession with length. However, as courses are stretched again and again in a misguided effort to gain credibility, there has been no issue here over length as the fairways are firm and many slope towards the greens.

Take the 667-yard 12th, which is admittedly a cripplingly difficult hole, and consider that Fred Funk . . . one of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour . . . took a three wood off the tee. And consider also that Bubba Watson . . . the longest hitter on the PGA Tour . . . has used his driver sparingly this week, and that Woods has reactivated his stinger two iron.

Much was also made of the 288-yard par three eighth . . .

where Trevor Immelman made a hole-in-one in practice . . . however, the green is generous and flat, and with no significant breeze, distance has not been an issue for this calibre of player. The 123-yard Postage Stamp at Troon is an infinitely more complex hole.

While the rough is impossibly dense in places, and if the fairways are severely cambered, the greens separate Oakmont most of all from other US Open venues. Never mind what they say about Augusta, never mind that they appear deceptively flat on television, these sloping putting surfaces are the most treacherous, the most mystifying and the most testing anywhere. "By far the most difficult greens I've ever played, " shrugged Woods. Standing over his putts, McDowell said he had never felt as uncomfortable in his career.

Miller predicted that whereas the average par putt at regular tour events is in the region of three or four feet, it would be nearer to 20 feet here. For his part, Harrington found that for any putt outside of six feet, the pace had to be exactly right.

"You're really looking for dead weight with the putts. That old thing about having to be up to the hole or past the hole with your putts, well anyone who tries that here won't hole anything. So you're bound to leave some short." In the end, his struggle on the greens was less relevant than a badly misfiring swing.

The men of the Masters got it badly wrong when they let Augusta dry out to such an extent last April, that nearly all of the traditional Sunday drama was nullified. Here the USGA has got it right. This evening, Oakmont will be playable, but it will also be numbingly difficult, demanding extraordinary precision and nerve. What else would anyone expect from the US Open?

A handful of players went to bed last night believing they could win this major. There will be a champion later today, and one man will be left standing, but Oakmont has already emerged as the winner.