One of nine Australians set to contest the second major of the year, Hend will make his 10th appearance in a major championship by virtue of his runner-up finish on the 2019 Asian Tour Order of Merit.

It’s familiar territory in some respects but given his struggles since the resumption of the European Tour post the COVID-19 suspension and the USGA’s historically tough stance at its showpiece event, Hend knows it will be no easy ride.

Starting with a triple-bogey at the par-5 12th, Hend fell from 9-over and within reach of a top-10 finish to 14-over and a tie for 32nd 14 years ago, nine shots behind the champion – and fellow Australian – Geoff Ogilvy.

Equalled only by Oakmont a year later, that 5-over total was the highest winning score at a US Open since 1974 and Hend doesn’t expect anyone to end the 2020 championship on the red side of the ledger.

“It all depends on how the USGA set it up and I’ve heard rumours that they want a score around plus-8 to win the tournament,” Hend said ahead of his fourth US Open appearance. “That’s pretty scary when you think about that.

“I can’t say how I’m going to play the golf course until I see it and I see the weather conditions when I show up.

“I might get an early tee time on Thursday, turn up to the golf course and there’s not a breath of wind, it’s overcast and all of a sudden you play great golf, shoot 4-under. But, then again, I might get a draw in the morning turn up and it’s raining and windy.

“I need to be mentally prepared to have a bit of a tough time and may need to rely on my short game to get a few up and downs and try and make pars.

“If you watch any of these majors, any of these US Opens, sometimes par is as good as a birdie. That’s the way you’ve got to look at it.”

Now 47 years of age, Hend is grateful for the opportunity to once again play in a major championship.

The disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic made Regional and Sectional Qualifiers impossible to stage, opening the door to the USGA to grant special one-off exemptions to players from tours around the world.

Kiwi Ryan Fox is another to benefit courtesy of his ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit victory last year and given the circumstances, Hend is determined to give a strong account of himself and improve on his major record.

“Obviously I’m excited to be in the US Open. I feel like I’m very fortunate to be given the invite to get in so I’d like to make the most of it and I’d like to produce a result this time,” said Hend.

“This is my 10th major and my best result so far is the US Open in 2006 which is pretty disappointing really considering how I think I can play.

“There’s no nerves, no hesitation, I’m really looking forward to it and I’m really going to enjoy the time that I’m there playing.

“I thought coming into the back nine (in 2006) that I had a chance to finish right up there in the tournament but then the back nine at Winged Foot grabbed me and I didn’t play too well.

“I’m not exactly sure what score I finished on but I think plus-5 won the tournament.

“All I can remember is the greens baked out. They got really, really firm.

“The ninth hole was a really long par 4 with quite a thin fairway and the rough was just brutal.”

It’s that Winged Foot rough – and the lack of heaving US Open crowds that would ordinarily trample it down over the course of four days – that Hend believes will add an extra element to its difficulty.

“I was talking about that to Wade Ormsby last week in the UK. I said the problem’s going to be that if you tee off Thursday afternoon, the crowd has normally trampled the rough a bit but that’s not going to be the case.

“Usually if you hit it 10 metres wide you hit it to where the crowd was and you can get a shot. Now you’re just going to be trying to look for a ball. It’s going to be brutal.

“That was the great thing about the crowds at a major. You could always tell when Tiger made a birdie; that’s a different roar and it was awesome in that way. It made the hairs stand up on your arm, listening to that sort of stuff.

“Obviously that’s not going to happen this year but at the end of the day you still get your name on the US Open trophy and you’re a major champion. Crowd or not there’s still the end goal in mind.”

The nine Australians who have qualified for the US Open are Jason Day, Scott Hend, Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones, Marc Leishman, Curtis Luck, Lukas Michel (a), Adam Scott and Cameron Smith.