It's A pity Mark Twain wasn't around yesterday to savour the delights of this charming city in glorious June sunshine. Locals still bristle at the bad press he gave the place by suggesting that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

However, the weather is likely to offer little respite to competitors when the US Open starts on the fearsome Lake Course here at the Olympic Club on Thursday. El Nino, which brought 100 days of rain to this area during last winter, has already done its work by creating rough the texture of a wire brush.

Colin Montgomerie has acknowledged as much by including a seven wood in his bag during practice rounds, in the belief that it could be an invaluable asset out of rough. Europe's main hope of capturing the title arrived here on Sunday armed with two such implements acquired on a visit to the Callaway factory in Carlsbad a few days previously.

Montgomerie's great rival, Ernie Els was due to fly in last night from his home in Orlando. And the good news was that he was confident of being fit to defend the title. He seems to have overcome the back strain which caused him to withdraw after nine holes of the Buick Classic last Thursday.

"A little bit injured makes you a little bit tough," said the South African, who won the blue riband of American golf for a second time at Congressional 12 months ago.

Since his withdrawal from the Buick tournament, where he had problems in the lower lumbar region, he has been treated by Tom Boors, a physical therapist at the Hugston Clinic in Georgia.

According to Boors, a Dutchman with a degree in manual therapy, the normal twists and turns of the golf swing are only part of a tournament player's problems. "I think it's not so much golf as too much golf," he said.

"Some beat balls for three hours and some have a brutal schedule with tremendous travel. They go everywhere. It's an overload and sitting on an aeroplane can be hard on your disks." As it happened, Els broke from the American circuit to play in the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth on May 22nd to 25th and was back in the US for the Memorial Tournament later that week.

Boors has treated Davis Love, Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson, Greg Norman, Brad Faxon, Loren Roberts and Larry Mize for back trouble. But Tiger Woods, who missed the recent Kemper Open because of twinges in his back, had no need of such help.

"My back's fine and I've been doing a lot of running lately," he said, prior to a practice round here yesterday. Then, despite playing only 11 US Tour events so far this season, he echoed the observations of Boors by saying: "The problem had to do with the amount of golf I was playing."

Ireland's two challengers, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke, have had sharply contrasting preparation for the championship. Having opted out of the Compaq European Grand Prix at Slaley Hall - sensibly as things transpired, with the tournament eventually being abandoned because of the heavy rain - Harrington travelled here last weekend and was out of the course yesterday in a practice round with Denmark's Thomas Bjorn.

Clarke, on the other hand, competed in the Buick Classic at Westchester CC where he finished strongly with a 68 to claim a share of 24th place. The surprise winner was JP Hayes, a 33-year-old from Wisconsin who beat Jim Furyk in a play-off to claim his first tour victory.

Jesper Parnevik, tied 10th, was the leading European. Then came Clarke and Jose-Maria Olazabal together on 212, 11 strokes behind the winner. Nick Faldo was three strokes further back on 215, the same score as Lee Westwood.

It was a highly significant tournament for Clarke insofar as a cheque for $13,928 pushed him into six figures in US earnings this season. Earnings of $109,091 from four US tournaments leave him in 119th position in the money list and should he maintain that standing by the end of the season he would achieve his objective of gaining a tour card for next year.

The Ulsterman continues to rely on leading American psychologist, Dr Bob Rotella, for mental preparation for this event. "I have had a three-hour session with him since I arrived here and am hoping it will bring the same sort of reward that I had at the (US) Masters (where he was tied eighth)," said Clarke, who was tied 43rd last year.

Meanwhile, reflecting on a disappointing challenge at Congressional last year, when he finished tied 19th, Woods and his coach, Butch Harmon, have concluded that they made a tactical error in using the driver only 12 times throughout the four days. "I should have recommended that Tiger hit the driver more often," said Harmon. "Even if he did finish in rough, he would have been much closer to the green."

Woods concurred. "It was both our faults not to hit the driver more last year," he said. And he is determined to use his power to advantage this week, despite claims by other leading challengers that Olympic makes length redundant.

"Jack Nicklaus, the greatest player of all time, was the biggest hitter of his day and he won four US Opens," said Woods. "The fact that he could hit it so far enabled him to use the three wood off the tee and hit the ball higher and softer than the other guys. Guys using the driver tend to run into the first cut of rough or even the hay."

Local experts take the view, however, that Woods could play the driver off the tee at a minimum of six holes on the Lake Course - the first, seventh, ninth, 11th, 16th and 17th.

The 22-year-old is familiar with the course from his student days at Stanford University.

Montgomerie, who lost a playoff at Oakmont in 1994 and was runner-up to Els last year, heads a list of 14 Europeans in the field of 156. The others are: Clarke, Harrington, Bjorn, Faldo, Ignacio Garrido, Per-Ulrik Johansson, Robert Karlsson, Bernhard Langer, Olazabal, Parnevik, Costantino Rocca, Westwood and Ian Woosnam.

Harrington has been drawn in the first two rounds at 9.10 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. (local time) with American journeymen Frank Linkliter and Howard Twitty while Clarke is in action at 12.20 p.m. and 8.0 a.m. with his Ryder Cup conqueror Phil Mickelson and fellow American Jeff Maggert.

Footnote: USGA officials report no developments in the search for 6,000 tickets, valued at $360,000, which were stolen from their offices here last weekend.