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Watson did everything quickly and still does - the way he walks, talks and swings a club. So it was a smart, decisive blow with a sand wedge that sent his ball away from the direction of the ocean and onto the green.

He'd made a pure contact and the ball leapt forward, bounced once and ran towards the hole, hitting the pin plumb on and then dropping for a birdie, when a bogey had seemed the most likely outcome only moments earlier.

Watson won the US Open and Open Championship in 1982

Watson .

Sport does not get any better - that was the moment was indelibly inked into my consciousness and it's why when I first started covering golf full-time in 2003 the first thing I wanted to check was when would the US Open be back at this spectacular Californian course.

And when we arrive there for this year's championship, the first thing I will do is walk to that 17th hole and look for the precise spot from where Watson played that chip. It will satisfy a long-held ambition.

But it isn't the only memorable incident at the 17th. In the final round in 1972, Nicklaus struck an equally famous one-iron (remember those) off the tee.

He had felt a fresh wind at the top of his backswing and says he adjusted accordingly - the ball drew in towards its target, bounced once and struck the flag, falling dead and finishing five inches from the hole.

in the first Open to be staged at Pebble Beach.

Since then the course has become synonymous with the second major of the golfing calendar and in many respects it has become the event's spiritual home.

In 1992, Nicklaus was congratulating clubhouse leader Colin Montgomerie as 40 mph winds battered the course. Moments later pitched in at the 7th to preserve his three-shot lead on the course and Monty would be left disappointed for the first and certainly not the last time in a major.

And then, of course, there was 2000 and . "I was playing in the other tournament," recalled , who after 60 holes of that extraordinary week was in a distant second place behind the eventual champion.

"I think professional golfers were wondering whether they would ever compete again against Tiger. He had taken such a leap, nobody else was capable of that," he added.

That week Woods played a calibre of golf the modern game had never seen before. It was a performance that provided the foundations for a decade in which he stood apart from the rest of the golfing world.

Woods left the rest trailing in his wake at Pebble Beach 10 years ago

In the build-up to that year's tournament, Woods played a practice round in Las Vegas with a young Adam Scott, who was then among the world's most promising amateurs. Woods shot 64 on a layout set up fast and firm to simulate the kind of conditions he would come across in California.

"I had never seen golf played like that and it almost stopped me from turning pro," Scott said. "After a while I realised the only person who could play like that was Tiger."

At Pebble Beach, Woods went aggressively for the pins and putted with deadly accuracy. It was the perfect mix; supreme talent and technique allied to fearless, absolute confidence and a unerring touch on the greens.

There was one moment when Woods sent a 210-yard seven-iron across the edge of Stillwater Cove from thick rough on to the 6th green which had the commentators proclaiming it was no longer a fair fight.

"You look back at it on video and there are some shots like that one on six that certainly made the rest of the professional world feel inadequate," Harrington said.

"I think for a number of years afterwards he dominated based on the fact that a number of players would have the opinion that he is three steps ahead," the former Open and US PGA champion added.

Now, Harrington feels players have realised they have to play their own games and worry less about what the world number one is doing. That's certainly an easier proposition given that Woods comes to this barely hanging on to his position at the top of the world rankings.

As we know, the world is a different place for him now compared with when he first arrived at Pebble Beach as a bold 24-year-old ready to dominate the world and achieved a record-breaking victory, which proved to be the first leg of the "Tiger-Slam" as he went onto win the next three majors that followed.

In those days he would fire at the pins in the knowledge that if his game was on he would win unchallenged. The only question would be by how many.

But as he matured Woods fashioned a more conservative game, one that played the percentages. It meant that he might not win by as many shots, but that he would triumph more regularly.

This was a phase that despite his knee troubles showed no sign of halting until and his life spiralled out of control.

Woods has played only four tournaments since and in the process has parted with his . This deeply unsettled background could not be in more contrast to the perfect build-up that was the bedrock of his sensational win a decade ago.

Inevitably Woods will be the biggest talking point in the coming week, for all sorts of reasons, some positive others negative.

What does Pebble Beach 2010 have in store for him and what about the rest?

Could we have the first British winner of the US open since Tony Jacklin in 1970? There's a big chance with leading the home charge. He looks the best bet to go to two better than Monty's third place of 1992.

Or will add the national title he so craves?

This championship is so abundant with potentially compelling plot-lines it will generate headlines that can hold their own even amid a World Cup dominated agenda.

And appropriately Watson will be there too, though a repeat of looks to be too much for a 60-year-old to contemplate on a typically set-up US Open course.

It's going to be a very special week - count on it.