Befitting his status as the continent's perennial number one, Colin Montgomerie made the European case. "With similarities to Augusta where we have won 11 times in 20 years, perhaps this course is to our advantage," he said of the impending challenge in the US Open at Pinehurst No 2 in North Carolina.

But as a contender who has twice been successful in major championships, Jose-Maria Olazabal was not convinced: "I cannot deny that the short game will play a part in this tournament, which hasn't happened in the last few years," he said. "But you still have to be a mechanical player."

Whatever Pinehurst's complexities, Darren Clarke looked to be very much at peace with the world when playing the back nine yesterday morning. After splitting the fairway with his drive at the 489-yard 16th, he looked across and grinned: "Adequate."

Even after such a well-hit drive, however, Clarke still needed a three-iron second shot to reach the front of the elevated green. And after throwing down a second ball, he comfortably made the target with a five wood. The overall quality of his ball-striking was quite outstanding.

"Everything's fine - I'm very pleased with the way I'm playing," he said afterwards. "I'm getting to like the course more and more, particularly the links-like contours of the greens."

In a sign of the times, the European line-up here includes five Swedes - Mathias Gronberg, Gabriel Hjerstedt, Per-Ulrik Johansson, Jesper Parnevik and Patrik Sjoland. And perhaps the most impressive aspect of their representation is that Hjerstedt and Johansson both saw fit to come through the final qualifying. The Europeans involved and not already mentioned are: Peter Baker, Thomas Bjorn, Nick Faldo, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Phillip Price, Sven Struver, Sam Torrance and Lee Westwood.

After his disappointments of 1994 and 1997, when he lost out to Ernie Els in each case, there is a popular view that the US Open somehow owes Montgomerie a breakthrough. But serious golf doesn't tend to work that way. So Olazabal is the obvious European standard-bearer.

He came at Pinehurst after a superb 62 in the rain-delayed final round of the St Jude Classic last Monday, when he was tied fourth behind Ted Tryba. And he promptly rejected the notion that the more generous fairways here were greatly to his advantage in that they placed less pressure on his notoriously suspect driving.

Could he remember when he last drove the ball well for 72 holes? "Seventy-two holes in a row would be a miracle for me," he replied self-deprecatingly. "My memory is not that good. I've had tournaments where I drove the ball well for two or three days but I don't think I've been pleased with my driving ever in my life."

All of which might explain a decidedly moderate US Open record during the last six years, including three missed cuts in a row from 1992 to 1994. Prior to that, however, the Spaniard had three successive top-10 finishes, being tied ninth at Oak Hill in 1989, and tied eighth at Medinah in 1990 and again at Hazeltine in 1991. So, his driving is clearly not as poor as he would have us believe.

Yet it is equally clear that he has no great affection for this event, which stifles his natural, Latin flair. "In a US Open, it's important to go from point A to point B and from point B to point C, like tee to fairway, fairway to green," he said. "And I think the Americans do that better than the Europeans, with the possible exception of Monty, who is very straight."

He then attempted to illustrate how an outstanding short game was not sufficient on its own. "If you are long and left at the eighth hole, it would be great just to get the ball on the green," he said. "You can use three wood, three iron, five iron, seven iron, nine iron, sandwedge, lob wedge, any club you choose. It doesn't matter. That's how tough it is out there."

Perhaps he was protesting too much. After all, his 62 on Monday had to be a pointer to his form. "The scoring all during the tournament was very good," he claimed. "I don't think that was one of my best rounds."

The inescapable conclusion was that the Spaniard was creating a smokescreen to deflect attention away from himself. And it was hard to blame him, given that the last player to win the Masters and US Open in the same season was Jack Nicklaus, back in 1972.