"A lot of the Tour events we play, you just have to make birdies," Woods explained.
"If you don't shoot 68, you're losing ground. Here, if you shoot 68, you're moving up the leaderboard. To me, that's fun. Par is rewarded and a birdie is really rewarded.
"That, to me, is how the game of golf should be played."
Unless Davis decides to move the tees up, 7426 long yards will ensure that par is king, playing into Woods' hands.
Kenny Perry, one of the longer hitters in the field, said he couldn't reach the par 4 7th — one of three par 4s measuring in excess of 500 yards — in regulation during a Monday practice round.
"I hit it down the middle and I had 255 to the green but I was still in behind the trees," he bemoaned.
Geoff Ogilvy, who won the last time a U.S. Open was held in New York (on the other side of Manhattan at Winged Foot), was forced to hit fairway woods into "multiple" par 4s during a Tuesday morning practice round.
"Three and four irons, we're wearing them out," the Australian said. "It's incredibly long."
Woods concurred, saying the course was playing longer than it did seven years ago, when he won his second U.S. Open title here.
"I don't feel like I've gotten any shorter since 2002, but, man, I'm just wearing out my long irons," he said.
Freddie