By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent

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The writing is not so much on the wall as the noticeboard when the biggest names in golf arrive for the United States Open this coming week.

Every player sees the sign before he tees off at Bethpage State Park on New York's Long Island, the first public course ever to stage the championship - "Warning. The Black Course Is An Extremely Difficult Course Which We Recommend Only For Highly Skilled Golfers."

Firefighters, ambulancemen and policemen from Ground Zero are among the regular visitors who find out whether they are up to the challenge - but now Tiger Woods, Colin Montgomerie and the rest re the ones to be tested.

Woods has already declared it the "hardest par 70 I've ever seen" and the fact that it is a par 70 is the biggest confidence-booster for those with ambitions of stopping him achieving the second leg of his Grand Slam bid.

Lengthening Augusta National for the Masters played into the world number one's hands and it has already been brought to his attention that he has still - after nine attempts - to win a major on a par 70 lay-out.

Of the other 17 majors he has played, he has won seven.

His advantage, clearly, is greatest when he can reach par fives that are three-shotters for most of the field. Bethpage is 7,214 yards, but has only two par fives.

"Maybe I just haven't played well those weeks," says Woods in his defence of his record.

"You can't play well in every single major and sometimes you just don't have it that week."

Breaking that particular hoodoo could serve as motivation for a golfer who does not seem to need much to spark him.

"Given how long the course is, I can't see hitting many irons off the tee," he added after his first look at the set-up.

"I managed to reach both par fives in two with irons, but hit good drives. I feel really good about the way I'm swinging my driver and expect to use it a lot."

With a total yardage of 7,214, length will still be important - but not as much as accuracy and patience.

After finishes last month of third, second, second again and fourth, Colin Montgomerie is confident he will have the first of those two qualities and hopeful that he will possess the latter too.

The Scot knows time is running out if he is to achieve his lifelong ambition by winning a major.

Montgomerie is 39 later this month and the players who have broken their ducks at an older age than that in the modern era are few and far between.

Tom Kite was 42 and Mark O'Meara 41 when they did it, but when you have never won a US Tour event, trying to make it a major is asking an awful lot.

Just imagine the pressure on the Scot if he does get into contention.

He was three clear after one round of The Open at Lytham last summer, still one ahead at halfway, only one behind after three and finished 13th.

Open crowds get noisy, but New York fans have a reputation for being the noisiest of all.

And while Montgomerie says he supports the American magazine-inspired idea of handing out 25,000 "Be Nice To Monty" badges, it is making an issue again of the problems he has had in the past.

But what he needs to concentrate on is that he took Woods to a three-hole play-off in Germany three weeks ago - and did so with a bad back.

What Nick Faldo might care to focus on is that former coach David Leadbetter reportedly described him as "a carthorse" recently.

Faldo received a special invitation to what will be his 60th successive major, a run that goes all the way back to his first Open win at Muirfield in 1987.

Fourth at the Volvo PGA championship on his last start was not a bad way to warm up for it.