US Open: Yorkshire’s Danny Willet in prime position at Pebble Beach

But when it comes to the best place to be based for the third major of the season at Pebble Beach, former Masters champion Danny Willett may have found the solution.

“We’ve got ourselves parked a mile away, right on the Cypress Point peninsula in a little RV (recreational vehicle),” said Yorkshire’s Willett.

“There are a few places around here you can stay in but the majors are always the same. The traffic can be horrendous. You can be five miles away and it takes you an hour so we’re staying as close as possible with as little hassle as possible. We spend so much of our lives in hotels so we try and get houses a lot of the time. This is just that on a slightly smaller, more American scale.”

Willett has been based in America this season and comes into the US Open on the back of a tie for eighth behind McIlroy in Canada, his first top-10 finish on the PGA Tour since he won the Masters in 2016.

That statistic overlooks his super victory in the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in November but does offer further proof that 18 months of injuries and poor form appear to be firmly behind the former world No 9.

“I haven’t played lots of golf so it’s nice to get into a run,” the 31-year-old added. “Memorial turned out to be a really good week, and Canada the same kind of thing. It was nice to have a couple of nice results in the run-up to a major. In the past, I’ve liked to just do the majors on their own, but for getting game-ready and in a better place for scoring, I think a couple in a row might help that.”