Rory McIlroy returning from another injury at US Open in Wisconsin

At 7,741 yards, Erin Hills is the longest course in major history and the par-five 18th can stretch to 675 yards, although numerous tee boxes allow the course set-up to be varied every day depending on weather conditions.

After hearing howls of protest from some of the more delicate souls in the 156-man field and seeing a torrential downpour soak the premises early on Tuesday, the USGA deigned to do away with much of the Amazon Forest-like rough lining the uncharacteristically wide fairways.

The ailment flared up again during the Players Championship in May and an MRI scan on his rib prompted McIlroy to miss three events leading into the US Open. Who would have thunk it?

“I don’t think I need to force it at all”. “I wasn’t sure I was going to be here, but very excited … relieved”.

“I wasn’t crying when I saw that rain last night and this morning”, he said Tuesday. Day was of course referring to the reputation that followers of the Milwaukee Brewers and others sports teams from the area have in wearing cheese mock-ups in the cheese-making state. “I don’t want to stop by just qualifying and being here ceremonial”.

“If I can get that in my hands more regularly, and I think if the field has to hit driver more, as well, that plays into my hands, too”. And generally my short game improvements this year have been good.

Diaz is next up on the alternate list and has a better-than-average chance of taking the spot that now belongs to Phil Mickelson, who will attend his daughter’s high school graduation in California and, barring a weather delay, won’t make his 2:20 p.m. tee time Thursday at Erin Hills.

Remember a year ago, when Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson played a round for the ages, trading birdies and spectacular shots until Stenson finally came away with the British Open title?

Merion, where Rose won in 2013, couldn’t be much different than Erin Hills.

The worry wasn’t so much that the fescue is impossible to play out of, but that the pros could actually – egad – lose a golf ball. PHOTO: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images. “I felt like I could bring it back to square more often than anything else I had tested”. I feel like if you prepare 100 per cent the right way, mentally that puts you in a great frame of mind to go out there and attack the golf course.

MIKE DAVIS, USGA executive director: If you were to pace off the [fairway] widths [at Erin Hills] and compare them to, say, a Winged Foot or Pebble Beach or Oakmont, I dare say they’re 50 percent wider and in some cases they’re easily double the width. “Attitude makes for at least 25 percent of your performance”.

“It’s important to have your mental strength and energy over the weekend if you’re going to do well, and not overdo it in the first couple of days”, said Stenson, who added the Olympic silver medal in Rio.

And with Garcia’s victory in The Masters this year, Fowler would be a prime contender for the title of the best player not to have won a major.

“Everyone is going to run into some sort of trouble out there, everyone is”, he said.

“I was fine with that, I really was”.

“I feel really good, as long as I manage the load that I put through in terms of practice and hitting a lot of balls. I think they [the organisers] are doing a good thing trimming it back just a little”.