Ernie knows the way

Three players in the 156-man field at the US Open have won at Congressional. Only one of them knows what it takes to win a US Open. That would be Ernie Els, who captured his second US Open title in 1997 at Congressional.

When the AT&T National came to Congressional in 2007, KJ Choi beat Steve Stricker. A year later, Anthony Kim closed with a 65 for a two-shot win over Fredrik Jacobson. Tiger Woods had rounds of 64-66-70-67 when he won in 2009. He won't get another crack at Congressional this week because he is not playing due to left leg injuries. "The course definitely plays different than when I won in 2007," Choi said on Monday.

"The tee shot, when you're standing on the tee box, the holes played different. You have to attack differently. They've pulled it back 20, 30 yards on some of the holes, so you actually have to draw your shots, where in 2007, I could fade my shots."

Even so, the experience of winning has helped Choi feel like he knows his way around. He knows where he can miss, and where the big numbers are waiting if he misses in the wrong spot.

Early reviews on Congressional are favourable as a stern but fair test, but the greens are not quite as firm as they tend to be when the competition gets under way tomorrow.

Among the favourites this week - because of the major, not the location - is Lee Westwood, who is No2 in the world and getting closer than ever to winning his first major.

Westwood had a putt to get into the play-off at Torrey Pines in the 2008 US Open. He had a par putt to get into a play-off at Turnberry a year later, and he had the 54-hole lead in the Masters last year.

"If you're a good player, you're going to have disappointments because you're going to be in contention a lot, aren't you? You're going to have lots of chances to win major championships," Westwood said.

It wasn't always that way for Westwood.

Even though he rose to No4 in the world earlier in his career, it took him until a few years ago to start getting seriously close. His first US Open happened to be in 1997 at Congressional.