In this era of crash, bang, wallop golf, when courses have been stretched to their limits and championship tees are almost in different postcodes, this week's US Open at storied Merion will present something of a change from the norm.

In 2011, the host venue of Congressional was just shy of 7550 yards. Last year, the daunting Olympic Club in San Francisco featured a par-5 16th that measured an eye-popping 670 yards. Against such fearsome figures, Merion's overall distance of 6996 yards is almost pitch and putt by modern day Major standards.

Length, of course, is not everything. The shorter holes – there are five par-4s under 400 yards – will be tight and flanked by punishing rough. There will be plenty of potential for birdies, but a reckless, gung-ho approach in the pursuit of such rewards could easily end in disaster. A considered, patient and precise strategy will be the order of the day while imagination and creativity will be required to plot a careful path around this revered stretch of American golfing terrain. Then again, fortune may just favour the brave....as long as they stay on the straight and narrow.

"You're going to have to hit drivers to win," said reigning Masters champion Adam Scott as he mulled over a venue that will be the first US Open course to measure under 7000 yards in almost a decade. "Because I believe that if you're not, someone else will be. If one guy is good enough to hit a lot of fairways with their driver that week, they're going to have a lot of wedges into greens. And that's how you're going to create your opportunity to score."

With its classic layout and robust closing stretch, Merion's decorated East Course is a place where history is made and celebrated. The great Bobby Jones, who had already won The Open, the British Amateur Championship and the US Open during a glory-laden summer, won the US Amateur Championship at Merion in 1930 to complete a golfing Grand Slam. Two decades later, the redoubtable Ben Hogan, just 16 months on from the car crash that nearly killed him, struck the now iconic 1-iron on to the 72nd green to force a play-off and begin a stretch of three US Open triumphs in four years.

Who will join that distinguished roll of honour next Sunday is anybody's guess as the second Major of the season returns to this corner of Pennsylvania for the first time since 1981. Webb Simpson, pictured, emerged triumphant from the battle of attrition at the Olympic Club a year ago and the 27-year-old is relishing the prospect of another rigorous examination of course management.

"I look at it as two different golf courses," said Simpson, whose experiences of playing Merion in the 2005 US Amateur Championship has helped to forge an appreciation of its abundant nuances. "Potentially through 13 holes, if you drive it well, you can have nine wedge opportunities. And then the last five holes are going to be some of maybe the hardest we have ever had in the US Open.

"So you kind of have the best of both worlds. And that's why I think this US Open is going to be so unique in the sense that I don't think a long player or short player has an advantage. I think a guy with a good wedge game and a good mind will have the advantage because you'll have your birdie opportunities, but what I remember about Merion is the second that you think you've got an easy hole, an iron and a wedge, is the second that you will probably make a mistake. There are a lot of intricacies with Merion that a player will go around the first time and not see them all. So that's where I think that will help me. I've already played in a big championship there."

Simpson's San Francisco success, achieved with an anchored putter, bolstered the movement to have that particular method of stroke banned. A month later, at Royal Lytham, Ernie Els became the third long-putter user to win a Major in less than a year when he plundered the Claret Jug at The Open. The Big Easy will head for Merion in reasonable spirits for a championship that has always got his competitive fires burning. Els won the US Open crown in 1994 and 1997 and has had a series of other top-10s down the seasons, including a third at Pebble Beach in 2010 and a ninth last year, when a brace of bogeys in the closing stages finally put paid to his chances.

"I was close then, I was closer than ninth last year," admitted Els, who will be making his 21st consecutive appearance in the championship. "I had a good chance then but for a disappointing finish. I didn't take it as a negative, though. I took it as a positive because under pressure I felt that my putting was standing up and my general game was standing up. I went into The Open the following month with a bit more hope and I'm looking forward to doing that again."

One man certainly eager to get cracking at Merion will be Tiger Woods. The question next week will be which Tiger will turn up? There have been times this season when the world No 1, with four wins to his name in 2013, has been majestic, particularly during his Players' Championship triumph at Sawgrass last month.

Yet Woods, who won the last of his 14 Majors at the US Open of 2008, is still prone to the occasional blow out. His third-round 79 during the recent Memorial Tournament featured the worst nine holes of his career – 44 to the turn – and he went on to finish a bogey-laden 65th. Woods closed that particular event with a 72, but anyone who thinks that lost weekend will have any bearing on his US Open campaign should perhaps remember the words of a certain Jack Nicklaus.

"I'll give you this one," recalled the 18-time Major champion. "The last US Open I won [in 1980] I shot 72-79 the week before. And then I broke the US Open record. So I wouldn't read too much into that."

The rest have been warned.