PREVIEW 109th US OPEN:THE US Open, as it has always been, is basically a numbers game. Over the next four days, whoever covers the undulating terrain of the Black Course – set amid the majestic Bethpage State Park on New York's Long Island – in the fewest strokes will ultimately be declared the winner. Simple.

And, yet, there is more to this 109th edition of the major. There is nothing simple at all about it.

You’ve got Tiger Woods, closing in step by step on Jack Nicklaus, in his quest to replace the Golden Bear atop the hierarchy of greatness; you’ve got Pádraig Harrington’s descent into darkness, which has left him requiring the patience of a saint in wondering when it will all come right; and, of course, there’s the emotional baggage – which could swing either way – attached to Phil Mickelson’s presence here, at a time when his family attempt to come to terms with his wife’s cancer diagnosis.

Every one of the 156 players in the field here for the season’s second major must walk on to the first tee for today’s first round without any distractions, for the task ahead is to conquer a course which – especially with the forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms – has the propensity to bring most mortals to their knees.

For the first time in a US Open, a course will feature three par fours over 500 yards. The seventh, at 525 yards, is the longest par four in US Open history.

The greens will run to a Stimpmetre reading of up to 14 (think putting on glass). The rough, if not as wild as it was in 2002, gets thicker the farther offline a player strays.

Whoever gets to put his hands on a trophy that has been polished and admired in Tiger Woods’s home in Florida for the past year will have earned it.

It will be a grind, and that’s the way Woods – and, indeed, the Harrington of recent years – would want it. The course will ask the questions, and the pool of players capable of answering them diminishes as each day goes by.

Is there an archetypical US Open player?

“I don’t know. I think that you always look at Tiger because he’s been so dominant,” observed Sergio Garcia. “But I think the perfect kind of player would be a good driver of the ball, somebody that is consistent with his long game and still pretty decent around the greens.”

Harrington, for his part, isn’t entirely convinced that the prototype exists. “Find a guy who is long and straight and good with the putter . . . (but) you seem to just get blessed with one part of it, you don’t seem to get the whole part. You’re either good with the short game and struggle with the long game, or vice versa. There’s probably no complete golfer but, on Sunday evening, there will be one, I’m sure.”

Indeed, if one of the game’s long hitters – a Bubba Watson, perhaps – were to have a week of weeks, bombing the white sphere to places out of range for most players, then Bethpage could unearth a surprise winner.

The more likely outcome, though, is that someone who is proven and tested in the white heat of major championship fare will emerge triumphant after a test with the course and a battle of wits with himself.

It won’t be won easily, and the pressure on Mickelson – whose wife is battling breast cancer and who yesterday said he is unlikely to play in next month’s British Open – is even greater. “It could be that the support (from fans) helps carry me through emotionally when I’m on the course,” said Mickelson.

It would be a remarkable achievement if Mickelson, playing in his 19th US Open, with only Fred Funk (competing in his 20th) with more appearances in the field, were able to compete, contend and win. But he is short of sharpness: last week’s appearance at the St Jude Classic – where he finished tied-59th – was his first outing since the Players championship. “I feel like my game is ready, but you just never know . . . . we’ll play it by ear, day-to-day.”

Of the four Irish players in the field – Harrington, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke – it is the younger guns who are firing best.

Harrington has missed the cut in four of his last five tournaments and is hopeful rather than expectant that it will all come right here, while Clarke is without a top-10 finish anywhere this season.

In contrast, McIlroy has won in Dubai and has six top-five finishes on the European Tour, while McDowell finished with a 63 to finish tied-seventh in the St Jude on Sunday and will hope to bring that momentum with him here.

“This is a course that rewards you for playing good shots. But if you don’t it will punish you,” said McIlroy.

When all is said and done, however, one man appears to have more pluses than anyone else. Woods, with one win and two runner-up finishes in his last four appearances at the US Open, has returned this season stronger, fitter and hungrier than ever.

He has a lot in his favour. He won on his last outing, at the Memorial. And he won the last time the US Open was played here, in 2002. The good vibes could well continue.