The irony is a rich one. At various points around this spectacular if contrived course built on artificial sand dunes at Whistling Straits, freshly varnished wooden signposts face towards European destinations thousands of miles away.

Lahinch, points one. Ballybunion another. Royal Portrush, Cruden Bay and St Andrews others. In this 86th staging of the US PGA, a championship that has proven particularly fruitless for Europeans, are they trying to tell us something? Maybe. Or, then again, maybe not.

But, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the course that has been built here hard by Lake Michigan in a place called Haven, Wisconsin, has managed to recreate much of the best of Irish and Scottish links courses.

And, while players are forced to play target golf with their approach shots in to greens, rather than run the ball up as on traditional links courses, one thing is assured: it'll be a tough test for whoever ultimately triumphs in this final major of the season, or as the PGA of America describe it, "glory's last shot".

"I think this is definitely the toughest course I have ever played in my life," confessed Sergio Garcia of Spain, one of 30 Europeans in the field attempting to win a title that has eluded their grasp since the lone success in 1930 of Scotland's Tommy Armour.

Of them, four are Irish - Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell - but, as Harrington pointed out, this is "an independent tournament" and everyone will be focused on his own game. They may be from Europe, but they're playing for themselves.

Yet, the simple fact is that no European has won a major since Paul Lawrie won the British Open at Carnoustie in 1999. That's so long ago that his exemption into the US PGA has expired. So, a European winner of a major - especially given that there have been nine different winners of the last nine majors, a time of seismic change, which bizarrely didn't indulge any Europeans - is certainly overdue.

Will it happen finally here? Despite the numerical strength of the European challenge, all the form indicators from the season's previous three majors would point elsewhere and mainly towards Ernie Els, who has two runner-up finishes, in the US Masters and the British Open, this season, and towards Phil Mickelson, who followed up his win at the Masters with a second-place finish in the US Open and a third place at the British Open.

Mickelson, for one, believes this course and the shot-making requirements will see the winner emerge from among the favourites.

"You have to drive the ball extremely well into the crosswinds here, which is not easy to do. You've to manoeuvre it both ways, and it is very difficult hitting iron shots into the green with crosswinds, having to cut the ball back or hook it in," said Mickelson. I'd be surprised if one of the guys (you look at) and expect to do well, if one of those guys didn't win."

Of course he is right. While the US PGA has thrown up some surprising winners in recent years, Shaun Micheel last year and Rich Beem the year before, the course at Whistling Straits is unique, unlike the normal set-up of US Tour events and one where the better players really should have the game and the mental attributes required to fashion out a win.

As Mike Weir put it, "it's like links golf, but it's a lot of target golf. You have to shape the ball and keep it on the correct side of the hole with as many slopes as you've got on the greens. You also have to be pretty creative with your short game around the greens."

Els - who admitted the missed putt on the 72nd green at Royal Troon that forced him into a losing four-hole play-off with Todd Hamilton has given him sleepless nights - one of the favourites going into the championship, believes it will be a great test: "You're not going to fluke this one, you've got to really play well here."

Many of the holes on the course remind Els of some he has encountered in Ireland.

"I think the 13th is very similar to the 11th at Ballybunion, and some of the par threes are very similar to holes I've seen in Ireland," he admitted. "You know, it kind of looks like a links but it definitely does not play like one. It plays a little softer, and you've really got to fly the ball to the green in the air."

Whoever wins will have to conquer a course that has the capacity to bite, and bite often. However, it is the finishing stretch of holes, in particular, that will ultimately decide the outcome and, if Augusta National has Amen Corner, Whistling Straits has two finishing holes - the 17th and 18th - that have been nicknamed the Gruesome Twosome such is their capacity to cause havoc.

The 17th is a par three of 223 yards called "Pinched Nerve" - "it's just penal to the left," observed Tiger Woods of a hole that is perched above Lake Michigan - while the 18th is a par four of 500 yards, called, appropriately enough, "Dyeabolical" after its creator Pete Dye, that players won't want to play requiring a birdie to win.

"There could be more chips off that green than any other green in major history," remarked Darren Clarke.

For the most part, this course is a new challenge.

"Nobody's played it in championship golf before," said Els, "so everybody starts out fresh. Everybody's going to have a different game plan, so it's going to be interesting to see. I'd love to win here and, then, you know the Masters in April. That would be my Cinderella story (a career Grand Slam)."

To achieve the first part, though, there's the question of defeating the course; and 155 other players.