The scenery was so much different when the U.S. Open last came to Long Island.

It was two years ago at Bethpage Black, a beast of a golf course anyone could play for $31, where raucous New Yorkers cheered for Phil Mickelson, razzed Sergio Garcia and left amazed at the incomparable Tiger Woods, who won his seventh major in his last 11 tries and then set off to win the Grand Slam.

No one was close to him that Sunday. No one was close in the game.

That’s hardly the case now.

The U.S. Open will be played at Shinnecock Hills, an exclusive country club in the Hamptons that reeks of wealth and civility, and values its place in history as one of the five founding clubs of the U.S. Golf Association.

Players rolled up their sleeves and bashed the ball at Bethpage. At Shinnecock, they straighten their collar and carefully steer through a links-styled course that relies on wind and waist-high fescue to protect par.

The landscape is just as different at the top of golf.

Woods hasn’t captured a major since he left Long Island. And for the first time since winning his first major at the 97 Masters with record-breaking, breathtaking ease, he no longer is the prohibitive favorite.

“Times have changed,” Ernie Els said. “I think guys get on the first tee and really believe they can win with Tiger in the field. Golf will always humble the best of them. That’s where we are.”

Woods is still No. 1 in the world, but now it’s a number, not a statement.

His only victory this year came at the Match Play Championship, where who you play can be more important than how you play. Woods had his worst finish ever at Augusta National as a pro. He squandered 36-hole leads in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour, something he had not done in 18 previous occasions over five years.

“Everybody feels the intimidation factor is not what it was,” Brad Faxon said.

Els climbed to No. 2 in the world by winning the Memorial, his third victory worldwide this year. Vijay Singh is right behind, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour after snatching the money title away from Woods last season.