Bethpage a classic Open test

The uphill walk from the eighth green to the elevated ninth tee-box prompts deep breaths, and for feet to be firmly planted on the ground. Nick Faldo - playing to the native gallery with an "I Love NY" baseball cap on his head - bounded up the incline, more like a mountain goat than a mountaineer loaded down with kilos of gear, writes Philip Reid from New York

And, after smacking a drive down the right-hand side of the fairway, he turned and remarked, "How did they hide this course for 65 years?"

Already, players are falling in love with Bethpage's Black course. Aesthetically pleasing, set as it is in a state park, this par 70 of 7,214 yards will nevertheless provide the sort of stern test that any USGA set-up provides.

Indeed, Faldo, playing on a special exemption, reckoned that there is "no margin of error", while Padraig Harrington, one of three Irish players in the field, said it was a "seriously tough course, but that is what you expect in the US Open".

While Darren Clarke was winning the English Open on Sunday, Harrington was winging his way over the Atlantic and, as such, was the first of the Irishmen to sample the course yesterday, playing in a three-ball with Thomas Levet and Jeev Milka Singh.

Clarke, meanwhile, arrived on Concorde - on the same flight as Colin Montgomerie, refreshed after a family holiday in Scotland - and Paul McGinley also took the transatlantic route, albeit not on the supersonic jet, to prepare for the season's second major.

Of them all, Faldo had a head start. The player turns 45 next month but seems to have discovered an inner calm and an outer conviviality as he has aged. Yesterday, walking down the ninth fairway, it was his second practice round in preparation for a championship that eluded him in his prime - the closest he got was a play-off defeat to Curtis Strange in 1988. But, despite a lack of length compared with today's modern big-hitters, a strict fitness regime has ensured that Faldo's mindset is still on competing for titles once he tees it off in a major.

This is his 81st appearance in a major and, for someone who felt he had seen all of the world's best courses, Faldo is a little taken aback that a course of such quality as Bethpage Black should have remained a hidden secret.

"The way it has been set up, it is going to be tough. Very tough," said Faldo. "If you go into the rough, it is a case of just taking a wedge to get it out and a wedge to get it on."

Although the greens here are comparatively level when compared with modern course design, when it seems that a green without severe undulations is lacking something, Faldo observed that they could be "brutal" - and may be reading as much as 14 on the Stimpmeter by Thursday - if they dry out any further.

"They're very quick. They don't look quick, but they are. It's tough to describe, but there is a late release and it seems that the ball doesn't want to stop."

Faldo's new, more gentle demeanour can be attributed in some way to the fact that the player, a six-time major winner, can never scale those same heights again.

"I was tearing my hair out until two years ago wondering what had happened to my game and could I get it back. It took me a while to realise that I was never going to get it back. I couldn't be what I once was. I'm older, have more interests away from the golf course and don't have the time or desire I once had to devote to practising.

"But I still think I can be competitive, although I know my chances of winning this week are much longer than they used to be."

And, in reference to a jibe from his former coach David Leadbetter in the latest edition of Golf Digest, in which the tutor said of his former pupil that "he used to be a racehorse, but he is a cart horse now", Faldo added: "There's still a little life in the cart horse. Yeah, yeah, still a little life there."

In the practice grouping behind was Harrington, who is very much of the thoroughbred variety. But he agreed with Faldo's observation that the Black Course will be a serious test of golf. Such a view was confirmed when he arrived on the eighth green. Although his tee-shot landed directly short of the flag, the Dubliner couldn't resist strolling over to the right edge of the green to observe the knee-high rough which had been allowed to grow within an outstretched arm of the putting surface.

"It must be about two-and-a-half feet," remarked Harrington.

Was he intimidated by the course? "No, I don't think it is as tough as Congressional (1997 US Open) or Winged Foot (1997 US PGA). I am not surprised by it. It has been set up like most US Open courses. You have got to hit the fairway, and the greens are firm so you have got to send the ball in high. Miss any green on the near side, though, and you will pay the penalty. It's a seriously tough course, but I expected that."

But Harrington also believes the course is a fair one, even with par fours that stretch up to 492 yards, as is the case with the 10th.

"If anyone thinks the course is long it is because they are not used to hitting six-irons into greens. I don't think it is unfair. Not at all. The game has changed. Ten years ago a professional used to hit woods into par fours," he added.

Indeed, yesterday he must have felt that way: his three-iron approach to the seventh barely found the front edge.

"Do you know what? I'd take that in the tournament," he said.

All of which indicates the tough task ahead.