The USGA understandably take security very seriously and the course and the surrounding streets are on lock down. Then when you get off the bus there are the individual checks, similar to the ones you'd see at any airport.
Leaving your room key, your mobile phone and recording equipment in one of the pots isn't the done thing here but that's what I managed to do. There then ensued the usual two or three minutes of panic when you lose your smartphone before a very kind security guard tracked me down and returned it.
I'm glad they did because a lot of the first hours of the day were spent out on the course recording links for pieces for Radio 4, 5 live breakfast and local radio as well as videos for the website with our rugby and occasional golf commentator Chris Jones.
We'd concocted a plan of action on the way to dinner last night with the valued input from our cab driver, a three-tour military veteran who agreed that we might just be into something.
Frankly, he was more interested in listening to game 6 of the NBA Finals rather than three jet lagged members of the BBC golf team and their madcap ideas but he indulged us nonetheless.
So by 8am Chris and I found ourselves on the tee box of the incredible 16th hole under the shade of the only tree on the course, Lone Fir. A deer ambled alongside the banks of the Puget Sound as we did what we needed to do.
One of the great privileges of working for 5 live Sport is that at major events you have incredible inside the ropes access. So avoiding the throng and dipping under the boundary markers and onto the driving range is always an incredible feeling.
It's the same at world title fights when you can touch the ring apron as the fighters make their grand entrances or walk under the finish line minutes before the end of a stage of the Tour De France.
You're immediately within a short putt of Rickie Fowler, the Molinari's are firing at the pins and Colin Montgomerie is putting balls close to the hole from 200 yards with the same effort as it takes to scratch your arm.
Things you I learned on the range today: Justin Rose is a) vey tall and b) very nice. Fowler is very small, but his girlfriend wears excellent shoes. And Angel Cabrera is oblivious to the heat. He showed up in a polo shirt, jumper and jacket as the temperatures pushed the low nineties.
Today was also Jay Townsend day; our long-time summariser arrived into the media centre for the first time, immediately walked the course, declared it "spectacular", and announcing that "no golf course would currently suit the game of Tiger Woods”.
As the afternoon draws on the journalists around us become more serious, more focused and more intense. You can tell that a very unique golf tournament is just hours away from beginning. The pool awaits for the production team after another long day where doubtless we'll discuss who we think will win the US Open. An editor’s tip? How about Jason Day?
5 live Sport will bring you comprehensive coverage of the US Open throughout the tournament.
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