World number one and four-time major winner McIlroy described the eight-year-old course built on the site of a disused quarry by the shores of Puget Sound in America's Pacific Northwest as a pure links challenge.

Having conquered Hoylake last July to lift the Claret Jug for the first time, the 26-year-old Irishman sees plenty of common ground between Royal Liverpool and Chambers Bay.

“In a way it's not too dissimilar to Hoylake. And I felt like at Hoylake I didn't need to change my game that much or adapt my game that much to how I played it in relatively benign conditions last year in Liverpool,” McIlroy said during his pe-tournament press conference this evening.

“We had a lot of rain overnight which made the course a little bit softer, which isn't really what this is going to be like this week. But coming in as The Open champion, I know that I've had success on links golf before, and I've grown up playing it, so there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to use that to my advantage in some way.”

Tournament favourite McIlroy, with three tournament victories already this season, said he felt the course suited his game well despite coming in off consecutive missed cuts on the European Tour, including in the Irish Open at Royal County Down a fortnight ago.

McIlroy said: “I really didn't know what to expect when I got here. I got to the course on Saturday morning, and I mean it's a pure links golf course. Every part of this golf course is fescue.

"You get fescue in the United States just on sort of the surrounding areas of the golf course, but here fairways, greens, aprons, everything, everything is fescue. It's really like playing an Open Championship in the United States.

“That's what it's going to be like this week, apart from the fact that it's about 20 degrees warmer. I really like the golf course. I think it sets up well for my game. You've got to be aggressive off the tee. You've got to hit driver.

"I think it's a course where you're going to see a lot of guys hit fairways and hit greens. But when you hit greens, you can still be 50, 60 feet away from the pin. So if you can drive the ball well and your pace putting and long putting is sharp, I think they're going to be two really key things this week to be successful.”