Hogan won four US Opens in six years

The dominance enjoyed by the legendary Bobby Jones, who won the championship in 1923, 1926, 1929 and 1930, coincided with another boom in the Open's popularity.

But Jones was not the first to win the title four times. Willie Anderson, another British immigant, won in 1901 and 1903, 1904 and 1905.

But Jones' success showed that American golfers now dominated the event.

Indeed, Britain had to wait a half century after Ray's triumph to produce another winner in Tony Jacklin.

But in this respect, the US Open was merely reflecting the general trend in golf of US domination.

Similarly, golf's greatest players have traditionally excelled in the US Open.

Biggest names

Ben Hogan matched Anderson and Jones with four titles from 1948 until 1953.

Arnold Palmer was the next great to emerge, firing a final round 65 to come back from seven strokes behind in 1960.

By that stage the competition was broadcast on US TV, and Jack Nicklaus emerged as one of sport's biggest names with his televised triumphs in the Open.

Snead: Four times runner-up but never a winner

His first success came on his debut in 1962, when he defeated Palmer after an 18-hole play-off.

He became the fourth and last player to win four titles with further successes in 1967, 1972, and 1980.

Nicklaus also finished runner-up four times, a dubious record shared with Sam Snead, Jones and Palmer.

His narrow loss to Tom Watson in 1982 remains one of the most dramatic US Open finishes, in a competition that has had 36 play-offs, more than in any other major.

The Golden Bear also holds the record for most top-10 finishes (18) and most top-20 finishes (22).

Renowned

In 1980, Nicklaus set a record for the lowest four-round total with 272, a mark matched by Lee Janzen in 1993 and Tiger Woods last year.

Indeed, the Open is renowned for high scoring.

The courses are meticulously prepared with narrow fairways and heavy rough, while the greens are usually fast.

Janzen had four sub-70s at Baltusrol in '93

Indeed, Lee Janzen in 1993 is the last player to win with all four rounds in the 60s.

Tiger Woods and Gil Morgan hold the record for the most strokes under par at any point, just 12. And Woods is the only player to finish the event that many strokes below par.

But the most intimidating statistic facing the large European contingent that will tackle the Southern Hills course is that players from outside the United States have only triumphed at the US Open 26 times.

Sixteen of the those wins were in the first 16 years when Scottish-born golfers dominated.

But in the last 31 years only three "foreigners" have triumphed, and the last time a British or indeed a European player won the US Open was when the aforementioned Jacklin won at Hazeltine in 1970.