Merion East: The Evolution

[Jeff Mingay]

The thread below: "Muirfield: The Evolution" is an excellent study in golf course design, courtesy of Harry Colt.

I think the same can be said of Hugh Wilson's and William Flynn's alterations at Merion East subsequent to the construction of Wilson's original layout in 1912. There's a good map of the course, illustrating the changes to the original layout, on pages 104 and 105 in the book "Golf at Merion". Unfortunately, I'm unable to post it on this thread.

If anyone else can, feel free, for the benefit of all!

To start with, holes 10, 11, 12 all originally played across Ardmore Avenue. In 1922, the present 10th, 11th and 12th holes were created to eliminate crossing the road with golf shots. These changes -- particularly those to the 12th hole -- resulted in the creation of the present par 3 13th hole (in 1924), principally to shorten the walk from the new 12th green to the 13th tee.  

The present 2nd green was also built in the early 1920s, lengthening the par 5 hole by 60 yards or so. (The left hand bunkers, just short of the green at Merion's 2nd hole were originally greenside.)

About the same time as the new 2nd green was built the par5 4th hole was also lengthened by some 50 yards at the tee end; and the eighth green was rebuilt also. Originally it sloped quite naturally, yet severely from front-to-back. Wilson originally placed a "sand trench" behind the green in order to catch balls (remnants of this "trench" can be seen today -- or at least when I was there a few years ago), but still the green was rebuilt with more of a back-to-front tilt.

It was also in the mid-1920s that Wilson started a completed revision of the course's bunkering, with the assistance of Flynn. Shortly thereafter Wilson died and, as we know, Flynn executed the revision of the bunkering.

The last major change to the original design was the rebuilding of the 1st hole, in 1929 -- changing it from a dogleg left to a dogleg right (it's present form).

Although ALL of the rest of Merion East's holes that remain true to Wilson's original 1912 schemes are intricate parts of the "puzzle", the aforementioned revisions have A LOT to do with the reverance we hold for the course today -- think about it: the 1st, 2nd, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th, holes!!!

Again, the changes to Merion East by Wilson and Flynn are an excellent study in golf course design... much like Colt's redesign work at Muirfield, and elsewhere.

[Willie_Dow]

Yes Jeff,
And let's include Richie Valentine and Bill Kittleman for keeping this course alive for its many years thereafter.
Willie

[Mike_Cirba]

Until very recently, Merion probably had as little "revolutionary" change and more positive "evolutionary" change than any course I'm familiar with.  

It had existed in a pretty static condition for almost 70 years, quite the feat!

Whether one likes the recent changes or not, there is no disputing that they are one of the more "revolutionary" changes to the course in its history.    

[TEPaul]

With complete respect to Mike Cirba whose opinions I   respect and value I wouldn't really say that the recent bunker project was all that "revolutionary" from a design standpoint no matter how much some of us may not like the look of what some call the new "puffy" or "upholstered" look of the MacDonald & Co. contractor's bunker work.

Some have said that in their bunker restoration project in hindsight they probably should not have taken out the old evolutionary surrounds to quite the extent they did and sort of started over from almost construction scratch so to speak on the surrounds but after all two things should be recognized. What Merion has done in their on-going restoration (which has been slowly in progress in one way or another for over ten years) is not redesigning the golf course, it's basically looking back at their history and the history of their design and evolution in an attempt to reestablish it!

We should recognize that no brand new bunker placements or design schemes have been created at Merion, what has been done is to analyze their overall design history and restore to it in a specific era! The second thing is there are many other elements of Merion's ongoing restoration!

The bunker project part aside it's time to look at the other elements of Merion's on-going restoration and to see the positives in those elements.

As Bill Greenwood pointed out at the GAP forum with Fazio and Klein, Merion has analyzed and plans to reestablish many of their old fairway widths to what they used to be (and were designed to be) before Open set-ups narrowed them down significantly from which they have not recovered (their widths) in well over 30 years.

Certainly some tree removal work was a positive and a pretty gutsy move on their part (#11 & #12, #16!!).

But the real interesting and positive move on their part, in my opinion, is their dedication to speed up the course through a campaign to establish firm and fast conditions! This is very significant to me! This is a maintenance process that should restore the "playbability" of the golf course to something it has not really been in decades although it's a "playbablity" Merion was certainly designed for! There's little doubt Merion's new superintendent is really into this firm and fast maintenance process!

If Merion really does this fellows, and does it to the extent they seem dedicated to, this is something that all of us who are interested in this particular (and very significant) aspect can point to as an example for many of our own clubs to follow.

Looked at in this perspective this could be one of the best efforts of a really high profile course that may be seen as a very significant counter-action to what has been called the "Augusta Syndrome" of super green and soft (something that few seem to realize that ANGC actually is not--soft that it)!

How could that not be a significant and positive move that could have a visible effect on the thinking of other courses?

Here's a little known tidbit that some may be aware of but certainly not all from one of Merion's history books as to interesting changes.

Although the basic routing and the holes of Merion are basically unchanged except for those rather significant and very positive hole changes that Jeff Mingay has already pointed out---there was a time for a year or two or a few in the beginning when golfers played those holes in a different routing progression!

Here's the way golfers played the holes of Merion in 1912 and probably for a few years thereafter;

1,2,6,7,4,5,3,8....and on the same as it is now! Except at that time and until the 1920s the original #13 was a very short little par 3 to the right of the front door of the club and wedged in next to the creek by the railroad tracks. One redesign iteration in that 10-13 change was to play from the present 13th tee to the old 13th green as a very short par 4 that crossed the creek twice. Obviously that would have changed the par and par progression I suppose. The 71/2 acres that includes the green-end of #11 and the tee end of #12 was not even owned by the club originally!

Again, I really think it's about time to let this fixation on Merion's bunker project go and start to concentrate on the significance and the positives of some of the other things the club is doing in their on-going restoration!

[Willie_Dow]

Thanks Tom for your great and thoughtful comments.  I agree 100 percent.
Evolution takes time, however, and my thoughts include Mike's 70 years of thinking by individuals who have been there for an extended period of time.  Valentine and Kittleman have a combination of years, on a day to day basis, which is unmatched by today's standards.
Revolution is another consideraton.
Willie

[ChipOat]

Tom Paul:

The order of play you referenced was still in effect for the 1916 U.S. Amateur.

Also, I believe the current 14th green was also an amendment of the original.  2nd and 15th tees are also in different locations.