The Hugh Wilson Invitational at Merion a couple of years ago. The rumor among the players was that Merion was trying to prove to the USGA that the course was still worthy of hosting a U.S. Open, so they were using our tournament as a proving ground to show the USGA how difficult the course could play. The greens were firm and rolling at least a 13-14 on the stimpmeter (I’ve played in USGA events where the greens were fast, but this was the only time I had to lag all of my uphill putts) and the pins were in tough spots. On the sixth hole during the first round, I hit a 5-iron to about two feet from the back hole location, from where I had to play over a foot of break. I still missed it below the hole and it didn’t stop until it rolled eight feet away (thank goodness I made that one!). The rough was not even that high (just a few inches), but it took the spin off of the ball and made it very tough to keep it on the green. The winning score for the three rounds that week in good weather was +16, which was turned in by Danny Green, one of the top amateur golfers in the country. I shot 82-81 (par 70) and was on my way to mid-80's in the third round when I holed out incorrectly on a hole and was DQ'd (I played in anyway). It was playing so tough that it really took much of the fun out of competing there. My game was not in good shape coming in, but that' s irrelevant to the story.
Examples of what went on:
1. On both the 12th and 15th greens, people were putting the ball off the green when the pin was on the left side. When the pin was back left on 15, unless you were directly under the hole, a missed putt would roll 8 to 10 to 20 feet below the hole.
2. On the 3rd and 15th greens, when the pin was right there was no way to get the ball anywhere near the hole; if you made the carry the ball would bounce over, and if you played left you'd have a long hilly putt. #3 was a three-iron from the back tee; the one ball I saw stop on #3 one of the days was when it hit the wicker basket on the fly and bounded into the rough not far from the pin.
3. The front-right pin on #8 was untouchable; you were just trying to spin it enough to keep it somewhere on the green, but not getting too cute because front bunker was dead.
4. The farthest right the pin was on #5 was center of the green, and it very hard to keep the ball anywhere but bottom-left of the green (many times the ball just wouldn't stop until it got there).
But I want to stress that I don't think the conditions were unfair; I just think they were un-fun. People were getting embarrassed out there. The novelty of it made it interesting, though, and for match play it would have been very interesting.
Did it teach me anything about golf, strategy or architecture? It taught me to prepare better for my tournaments!
At the time, I felt like I really had no strategy to employ--just get it anywhere in the fairway (didn't care where, I just wanted a shot in to the green), anywhere on the green, and try to make a good two-putt. I didn't really try to shape any shots or get cute with anything, because most of the time mistakes meant bogey at best. But that may have been the state of my game as well as the course setup.
I'd like to try those conditions again to see how far my game has progressed since then, but day-to-day or week-to-week I'll pass.
For me, the setup didn't take away the greatness of the course, but one comment to the committee that I'll remember from one of the players was: "You took this beautiful lady (Merion) and turned her into a whore."
