Hunter Martin, Getty Images Tiger Woods tees off on No. 8 at the Memorial Sunday. Woods spent nearly five hours at Oakmont yesterday, taking notes and studying putts from different spots on the green. Click photo for larger image.

It was another busy day of U.S. Open preparation for Tiger Woods, who arrived at Oakmont Country Club Sunday night, worked out in an Oakmont gym at 4 a.m. yesterday and played a practice round and plotted strategy with his swing coach, Hank Haney, by his side.

In between, Woods hit another 3-wood onto the green at the 288-yard third hole, reached the 667-yard 12th with a 3-iron from 270 yards and remarked to one of the Oakmont staffers that 4-over par would win the U.S. Open if it were held right now.

"Right now, 6 over," said Adam Scott, who played a practice round with defending champ Geoff Ogilvy on a day when seven PGA Tour players visited the course a week before the start of the first official practice round. "It's every bit as hard as Winged Foot was. I think the greens are faster. If they run faster with the greens here, it will make it a couple shots tougher."

Told that Vijay Singh predicted the winning score to be 8- or 10-over par, Ian Poulter of England said: "That's a nice number. I'll settle for that right now and go home. It's a hell of a test of golf."

Poulter played the past two days at Oakmont after missing the cut at the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio. He was joined Sunday by Davis Love III and Robert Allenby, who also missed the cut.

Yesterday, Poulter played only nine holes, and that was on the back nine with Woods, who played by himself on the front nine.

"It won't be a low score [that] wins this," Poulter said.

Woods played only 18 holes -- he interrupted his round after 14 holes to have lunch -- but he spent nearly 5 hours on the golf course, taking notes and studying putts from different spots on the green.

He declined to be interviewed by reporters.

Woods, though, saw Oakmont closer to the way it will play when the Open championship begins June 14, even though the greens were surprisingly receptive after rain Sunday night. It did not play firm and fast when he visited the course in late April and played 54 holes.

Still, he hit driver on five holes yesterday -- Nos. 4, 7, 9, 12 and 18.

"It's hard, but it's a great course," said Ogilvy, who won the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot with a score of 5-over 275, the highest winning score since the 1974 Open at Winged Foot. "The greens are slopey and they're very fast. They are pretty playable when under the hole, but pretty horrific when above the hole. They're faster than places like Augusta.

"I guess the idea is to keep it between the long stuff and keep it under the hole and you'll do all right. Soon as you're in the long stuff above the hole, you're in damage control mode. You get out with bogey you'll do well."

Ogilvy was the benefactor of Phil Mickelson's final-hole misfortune at Winged Foot, winning the U.S. Open by one stroke when Mickelson made double-bogey at the 72nd hole. Still, Ogilvy was able to outlast all the others, including Colin Montgomerie and Jim Furyk, because he parred the final five holes at Winged Foot.

After playing Oakmont for the first time, he thinks that might be harder to do this time.

"This was harder than the Monday 10 days before that tournament," Ogilvy said. "The first-cut stuff last year was playable. ... This is playable-ish, and in a week it can grow. You're better off on the fairway 230 yards out than you are in the rough 120 yards out."

"This is a lot tougher," Poulter said of the Oakmont rough. "You're not hitting greens from that rough. It's as thick as I've seen it."

Compounding the problem, Poulter said, is the slope of Oakmont's greens, which are not yet up to Open speed (13 to 13.5 on the Stimpmeter). That makes it even tougher to keep shots out of the rough on the putting surface.

"They'll be as quick as anywhere, definitely quicker than Augusta and Royal Melbourne," Scott said.

"That's what U.S. Open golf is," Poulter said. "It's not supposed to be easy, and certainly this golf course is not going to be that."