Martin Kaymer plays a shot from the native area on the fifth hole during the first round of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (Course No. 2) in Village of Pinehurst, N.C. on Thursday, June 13, 2024. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)

The great LA Times writer Jim Murray brilliantly described the white-knuckle demolition derby known as the Indianapolis 500 with the immortal line from his imaginary starter: “Gentlemen, start your coffins!”

He might have been describing the US Open, the golf tournament that brings a smile to the face of every sofa-bound sadist and reduces the greatest golfers in the world to quivering wrecks as they are taken to the limit by the USGA.

Pinehurst No. 2, the classic Donald Ross course brilliantly restored by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, is the perfect canvas for the kind of carnage not seen since the first day of the Somme.

Generous off the tee and devoid of traditional rough, its biggest defence is not just the native areas where wire grass is one of just 70 species of plant designed to tempt players into play recovery shots to domed greens that play far smaller than their 2,500 sq. ft. average.

It’s not so much a golf tournament as a survival test, designed to discover who can take the most brain-damaging punishment and still stagger away to pick up the 18-inch sterling silver trophy topped by a winged female figure representing Victoria, the Goddess of Victory.

World number one Scottie Scheffler is the overwhelming favourite to continue a magical run of form not seen since Tiger Woods was in his pomp. If he plays as he’s been playing this year, and fortune favours him, he will win.

“You not only have to be good, but you also have to have two horseshoes up your rear end,” seven-time major winner Sam Snead said of the US Open, where he was second four times.“You've got to be lucky to win the US Open."

All four-time champion Ben Hogan knew was that they give the trophy to the guy who shoots the lowest score.

Working out that conundrum that will decide Rory McIlroy’s fate as he looks to end a ten-year major drought in the major where his improved his finishing position incrementally over the past five years with successive top 10 finishes — ninth, eighth, seventh, fifth and second — since having a “come to Jesus moment” after his third missed cut in a row in 2018.

“Explosiveness isn't going to win a US Open,” McIlroy said, just a few hours before reports emerged he and his wife Erica had reconciled and called off divorce proceedings.

“It's more methodically building your score over the course of four days and being okay with that. Honestly, it's just more of a reframing of a mindset than anything else.”

Whether he has the precision with his approach play to challenge what he described as a “relentless” Scheffler is the big doubt.

“It is remarkable,” Seamus Power said of the Texan’s otherworldly form this year. “I feel like he’s almost not getting the credit guys might have in the past like Tiger Woods. When Tiger got on runs like this, it was like the world was ending.

“It is amazing – five wins and two seconds and an eighth. I think his worst finish is 17th in Palm Springs. I mean, it’s just remarkable. Last year we saw the ball striking was off the charts and it was just getting his putter starting, thanks to Rory for putting him into the mallet putter. Thanks for that Rory.”

Power is impressed by everything Scheffler does, especially his ability to quickly bounce back from potentially fatal mistakes

“He hits shots that don’t look great but at the end … it’s like they’re almost trying to fight back,” Power said. “It’s strange and very amazing. You think he pulled that, and he did, but it’s still like 20 feet or it’s left side of the fairway where other guys are hitting it into all sorts of issues.

“It’s very impressive. I’m mean you see the stats he’s putting up and it’s amazing. Every type of course, too, and all sorts of different grasses. It’s impressive.”

For Viktor Hovland, arguably the best player in the world without a major to his name, the task is simple.

“The best players play aggressively off the tee and conservatively into the greens,” he said. “I think this course is basically that strategy, just on steroids.”

As Woods sees it, handling the run-offs and the fatigue that comes with five-and-a-half-hour rounds in 33C temperatures on sloping greens stimping at 13 feet will inflict serious “wear and tear” on any human.

‘It's going to be a great test and a great war of attrition this week,” Woods said. “It's going to be a lot of fun for all of us.”

Whatever about the Irish challenge from McIlroy, Power, Shane Lowry and Tom McKibbin or likely contenders such as Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg and Brooks Koepka, how Scheffler fares will likely decide their fate.

“I still don't feel like there's much of a target on my back,” Scheffler said. “When we start the tournament week, we're all at even par and it's not like anybody is out there playing defence.

“When I play with Xander and Rory here Thursday and Friday, they're not going to be saying weird stuff to me out on the golf course or trying to block my putt from going in the hole. We all kind of got to go out there and play our game.”

Right now, Scheffler is the man with the game and the resilience to take yet another chequered flag in first place.