At Pinehurst it was Retief Goosen chasing history as he attempted to join Ben Hogan and Curtis Strange as the only back-to-back winners of the US Open since the Second World War.
At Winged Foot today it was Phil Mickelson looking to create history as only the third player, after Hogan and Tiger Woods, to win three consecutive majors following his wins in the 2005 USPGA and 2006 US Masters.
And just as Goosen had the unlikely figure of Jason Gore as his playing partner in the final group 12 months ago, so Mickelson had Kenneth Ferrie for company on a sweltering afternoon in New York.
To be fair to Ferrie however, Gore was a complete bolt from the blue, the world number 818 at the time who was not even a member of the US Tour and without a top-10 finish on the second-tier Nationwide Tour.
In contrast Ferrie was ranked 102nd at the start of the week, finished 11th on the European Order of Merit last year and won the European Open at the K Club in July.
Nevertheless, the 27-year-old is playing his first US Open and fourth major of his career and understands his presence at the top of the leaderboard all week has come as a big surprise.
"I'm sure a lot of you guys are very surprised and I'm sure there's a lot of guys in Europe that are surprised as well," he explained to the American media after a third-round 71 left him tied with Mickelson on two over par.
"I'm a capable player, I've won twice in Europe. I'm not coming here as a local guy who happened to get lucky and qualify. I qualified on merit from the money list.
"When you look at the guys ahead of me, there are some pretty decent players in front of me and a lot of decent players behind. A lot of people are shocked but everybody has to start somewhere.
"I was asked yesterday if it was a big surprise that I was up there. Yeah, maybe it is, but at the end of the day, Tiger, Phil and all the great players had to have a first tournament to do well in.
"Everybody has to start somewhere and hopefully this is my start and I'm off to bigger and better things in the future."
Mickelson is now the odds-on favourite to claim his first US Open title, and will have the raucous support of the New York crowds from start to finish.
But Ferrie has arguably played the most consistent golf of anyone this week with rounds of 71, 70 and 71, and led the field by two shots after 13 holes of his second round.
"I don't think many people are going to give me a chance of winning. It's my first time and I don't know myself how I'm going to handle it," added Ferrie, who hit the headlines for the wrong reasons last month after a "gamesmanship" row with Paul McGinley at the Irish Open.
"I could go out all guns blazing and play great or shrink under the spotlight. This is the biggest stage in golf and so far I'm front and centre. It proves a lot to a lot of people and that I deserve a little bit of respect for what I do.
"My whole game is based on fairways and greens, I don't overpower courses like Tiger. This course is very good for my sort of game and I'm a huge fan of the set-up."
Ferrie would become the first European player to win the US Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970, and the first to win any major since Paul Lawrie's Open victory in 1999.
