That Merion in suburban Philadelphia is, and always has been, one of America s great golf courses has never been in doubt. It’s place in history was assured when late in the summer of 1930 on the club s 11th green, Bobby Jones wound up the greatest ever season in golf by winning US Amateur championship and completing the Grand Slam. Twenty years later the Ben Hogan, his body battered by a brutal car accident the previous year, won in an eighteen hole playoff and assured the world his game was as precise and powerful as ever. Twice since the Open has been back to Merion. In 1971 Lee Trevino, the one player since Hogan who could match him for precision, beat Jack Nicklaus in a playoff and then in 1981 David Graham played one of the great final rounds – a 67- to win and become the first Australian to win the Open. The obvious pattern is the Merion rewards precision and the question is why the Open hasn t been back to Merion since Graham s incredible round. The pattern and the question are related. Merion is a short golf course and whilst it has now been stretched as far as is possible the overall yardage still comes in just under 7000 yards. When Graham won the course was almost five hundred yards shorter and in this era of great power it would be regarded as barely more than pitch and putt. That however does not tell the whole story of Merion and its masterful but unconventional routing. There are only two par fives and by the time the players reach the 5th tee they will have played both. From the 7th through to the 12th players will hit a long shot into the par three 9th but the others will be played with clubs less than a driver off the tee and a wedge. Then the wonderful bunker fronted par three 13th is barely 130 yards long and the course arrangers are liable to play it as short as 100 yards in one of the rounds. Those who measure the difficulty of a course by the numbers on the scorecard or the number of potential birdie holes will see a pushover but Merion may have the most difficult stretch of finishing holes in championship golf. To make a good score you will have to make something of the middle because there is nothing surer than all will have to play a succession of their best shots just to match par over the final handful of holes. The dimensions of the course have been distorted in order to ensure no one is far under the par of 280. Not only is the course stretched but it is also reduced. Never a wide open course, its fairway acreage has been reduced by eight whole acres and that distortion of the normal will ensure players will have to drive the ball string straight something that was a hallmark of the games of Hogan, Trevino and Graham. This will be a boutique Open and fresh from high earning Opens held at much bigger venues the USGA clearly decided they could afford an Open that made somewhat less profit than some. In an age when profit seeming rules all that can only an admirable thing. My guess is that many who admire the extraordinary architecture of the Golden Age of American design will be disappointed by the extent of the narrowing and the height of the rough. It is frustrating to see the dimensions so altered in order to reign in the equipment and the distances modern players can drive. But it will also be a wonderful opportunity to see a course that has been off the main stage for too long.
Author: Mike Clayton / Golf.org.au