In the footsteps of the mighty Oaklands Hill

The gesture is a small one, conveyed with a parting smile. "There you go, sir. Enjoy the round."

Without realising it, a small score card has been passed through the window and, in your hands, is a card that has a reproduction of an oil painting by the artist Linda Hartough.

It's a rather serene picture of a green guarded by bunkers and water and immaculate - but undeniably - heavy rough around the edges. In bold capitals, the words OAKLAND HILLS COUNTRY CLUB are printed underneath the image.

If Bernhard Langer didn't see the need for his team members, or potential members, to make an advance trip to the course - as early as the Players' Championship in March he intimated that it would be possible for 12 of the best players in the world with 12 of the best caddies in the world to work out whatever was required in the four official days of practice - it didn't stop me wondering if it was possible to play a round over a course once upon a time described by Ben Hogan as "a monster".

So, here I was, along with a fellow adventurer, Philippe Hermann from Switzerland, preparing to experience a course that beguiled some of the game's immortals, a course that has played host to six US Opens - the last in 1996, won by Steve Jones - and two US PGA championships, as well as two US Senior Opens, one US Amateur and one US Women's Amateur.

"It's part of the club's mission that we will be part of major championship golf throughout our history," said Rick Bayliss, Oakland Hills' chief operating officer.

"We've hosted every major championship except the two that we can't host, which are the British Open and the Masters and now we have the Ryder Cup layered on top of that. It kind of completes the cycle, if you will."

Indeed, for all its opulence, Oakland Hills is a friendly place; much, as it seems, is about everywhere you go in Michigan, a state with some wonderful golf courses.

The previous day I'd played golf with a player called Joel Weber - an 18-handcapper just a couple of years ago but now down to two and hoping, one day, to win a place on the US Champions Tour - at a course called Sheperds Hollow, a half hour's drive north of Oakland Hills.

When Golf Digest first visited the course, it began its description of Sheperds Hollow with a question. "Do you believe in miracles?" it asked, for the course is tucked into 422 acres of rolling terrain with towering forests of pine and oak making for an incredible setting.

It was voted one of the "Top ten courses you can play" by Golf magazine, and Joel's penchant for providing beef jerky as the snack of choice while attempting to conquer the Arthur Hills' layout added to the whole appeal.

It also served as the ideal tune-up for the following day's bid to take on the South Course at Oakland Hills, a task that the US and European teams face in next week's Ryder Cup.

Of course, this round was without the high stakes of golf's most intense competition. Still, the yardage book lets you know of the rich history associated with this course.

On the front cover, there is the American flag, the stars and stripes, and confirmation it played host to the 2002 US Amateur and, on the back, there's a list of past champions of the various events. 1922-Western Open: Mike Brady. 1924-US Open: Cyril Walker. 1929-US Women's Open: Glenna Collett Vare. 1937-US Open: Ralph Guldahl. 1951-US Open: Ben Hogan. 1961-US Open: Gene Litler. 1972-US PGA: Gary Player. 1979-US PGA: David Graham. 1981-US Senior Open: Arnold Palmer. 1985-US Open: Andy North. 1991-US Senior Open: Jack Nicklaus. 1996-US Open: Steve Jones.

You're following in some mighty footsteps.

The course is a classic.

First designed by Donald Ross before being restyled by Robert Trent Jones, it is ranked eighth on Golf Digest's list of 100 greatest courses in the United States. It measures 7,084 yards with a par of 70 - for the professionals that is who play off what are known as the gold markers; for the ordinary Joe Soap it's a more manageable 6,462 yards par 72 off the whites - but, regardless of what tees are used, the demands are not so much for length as for accuracy.

And, then, there are the greens. Boy, you will never forget the greens.

In my case, take the first, a supposedly easy par four that required a caressed three-wood off the tee followed by a five-iron approach that finished barely off the green, on the fringe and allowed a putter to be used rather than a sand wedge out of the thicker stuff that lurked no more than 12 inches away. It was a small saving grace because, four putts later, a double bogey six was being marked down on the card.

Ouch! These greens can hurt and this one has a horrible heartbreak slope.

In preparing for this Ryder Cup, no stone was obviously left unturned - either in terms or infrastructure, or in the way that the course will be set up for the match, obviously aimed at aiding the US team's challenge.

For instance, no fewer than seven fairways have been narrowed. As Hal Sutton, the American captain, observed: "it's going to take management to play this course. It's not the monster that it used to be . . . but the greens are everything that I remember them being. It will take a good iron player. You can't be a great putter if you putt from the wrong spots on the greens."

Still, the pleasant aspect of my round was, in the main, it was a playable course (admittedly off forward tees) and, as if to confirm it takes a while for Oakland Hills to bite, I managed back-to-back pars on the second and third and, while disaster lurked around the corner (can we please forget the double bogeys at the fourth and sixth with the triple bogey sandwiched in between?), the real bite comes towards the end, and a run of holes from the 15th that will ultimately decide the destination of the Ryder Cup.

The 15th is a par four with a bunker smack bang in the middle of the fairway, requiring a carry of 260 yards for the professionals.

It was here, in 1951, Hogan, trying to avoid the bunker off the tee in the third round, snap-hooked his drive into the trees and took double bogey. In the final round, he laid up with a three wood, hit a three wood approach to five feet on his way to winning his third US Open title.

It's a monstrously tough finish for the average club player, that's for sure. In my case, it certainly bit hard and deep.

A triple bogey seven on the 16th - a pond is in play on the drive and the approach, as I found to my cost - was followed by a double bogey five on the par three 17th which necessitates a tee shot to a contoured green some 30 feet higher than the tee while the 18th (which will play as a huge 493 yards par four in the Ryder Cup) resulted in a lost ball in the right rough and, so, a failure to fully finish out the course. By then, this 14-handicapper had been well and truly mauled. Let's hope the European players can make a better fist of it.