Merion. I love her and I don't even know her last name!

[Bill McKinley]

Well gents I just recently had the pleasure of playing the East course at Merion Golf Club a couple weeks ago.  I think my host summed it up best.  He's a member at both Oakmont & Merion.  He said, "Oakmont is magnificent.  Merion is magical."  I could not agree more!  I live in NE Ohio and we've had a record year for precipitation, but Ardmore PA has received way more rainfall than we have here.  So in the days leading up to when we were going to play, I couldn't help but keep an eye on what the weather was doing over in the city of brotherly love.  Long story short, I was able to play golf at Merion for two days in October in what could only be descirbed as perfect conditions!  Mid 70's and sunny and the golf course was getting firmer and faster by the hour.  Here are just a few of the 300 or so pictures that I took while there...

The sign by the entrance, Please... Love it



Teeing it on #1 during lunch time.  Nervous much?



2 tee.  You can see that they're starting to narrow some fairways in prep for the 2013 US Open



From 3 green looking down at #5



The approach to #4. Awesome



Looking back up #4



from the fairway on #5.  Very severe slope on the green from right to left.  Great par 4



looking back on #6



Me picking the ball out of the hole after dunking it from 105 yards for a 2.  Unbelievable feeling!



The view from 10 tee, looking over #9 green and #4 in the distance



Looking back on #11.  Bobby Jones hole, or as our member called it "God's Hole"



14 green with the brooms behind the green



from the quarry on #16.  Maybe my favorite hole at Merion



short right of the green on the par 3 17th



behind the green looking back at the quarry on 17



Looking back at 18. Perfect

[Sean Leary]

Thanks. Great pics..

No first cut it looks like. Don't remember that from when I have played it...Any pictures of the new tees for the US Open, 14 specifically?

[Keith OHalloran]

Bill,
I agree that Merion is magical. It just has a great feel, and an aura that you have a hard time describing. The holes are fun, the greens and bunkers are just amazing. And I have never thought about an opening tee shot for a longer time than the one at Merion. I was in traffic on the Jersey Turnpike, envisioning hitting someone with my backswing.

[Bill McKinley]

Sean,

I'll have to look through the pics to see about the new tees.  But i do know that on #14 they're planning to have a tee pretty much in the middle of the putting green, making the hole about 490.  Kinda sad if you ask me, but I think they'll put it back to putting green after the Open.

We played the furthest back set of tees that were out both days and there was more room on 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 and they'll building new ones on 14 & 18.

[Ash Towe]

Bill,

Thanks for the pics, you have a few different looks of this great course.

I did not realize the first tee was that close to the clubhouse!

[Dan Herrmann]

Merion is an extremely special place.  I was out there on the Sunday of the member-guest (not playing), and everybody was SO nice to us.   I've NEVER experienced any snootiness or sense of entitlement there, something I've seen at a number of CCFAD type courses.

Plus, it's a great members club - They have Merion West, which most clubs would love to have as their only course, with its log cabin "clubhouse".

It's Philly at its best.

[Mike Sweeney]

I am sorry, but they are ruining my hometown memories. This really sucks. The entire point of the second is to have options - left vs right. The right side was always the best route to the hole. With OB on the right, it was also risky. Left side was safe but brought bunkering and strange angles into play. They are all eliminated now.

I will always remember watching Greg Norman and Tom Watson driving the second hole in the 1981 US Open. Goodness, I sound old but now that hole is simply a different hole.

Stupid.

[JC Jones]

Sweeney and his relentless Merion bashing.  Typical.

[Jason Walker]

Mike-
relax!  Whatever they do today can always be put back in place after 2013.  I only know a few members but from my understanding they know their place in history, both as an historic club and a championship golf course.  I trust they know what they're doing there.

[Mike Sweeney]

Sweeney and his relentless Merion bashing.  Typical.

The 14-18 stretch is great at FH (Friars Head), but in a match play it still loses on the 18th hole at Merion (14 + 15 to FH, 16 and 17 to Merion),

I have not seen the Bandon courses and Shinnecock just misses both categories above by a nose. All of the above should be viewed in observance that I AM a big fan of FH.

Some of us have the ability to be analytical, some of us have the ability to access!!

[Mike Sweeney]

Mike-
relax!  Whatever they do today can always be put back in place after 2013.  I only know a few members but from my understanding they know their place in history, both as an historic club and a championship golf course.  I trust they know what they're doing there.

Jason,

If you knew some of the knuckleheads that went to high school with me that are now members, trust me, the admissions committee obviously had a few too many for at least one or two meetings.  

All kidding aside, name a course that is better architecturally after hosting a US Open in the last 20 years?

Bethpage, yes but the fairways have NOT been put back to their original widths. Others?

[D_Malley]

Bill,
was the 12th green in play? or did u play atemp green on that hole?

[Bill McKinley]

Mike,

I should be noted that the tee they are putting in at the 2nd is back and to the left of the tee pictured, so the players will pretty much be aiming at Ardmore.  I think the tee shot will be very difficult, especially early in the round.  I could actually see a few guys trying to hit it left into #5 fwy then hitting their 2nd over the trees to leave themselves with a wedge in.  I'm not saying i like that, but putting the tee where they're going to put it creates doubt in the tour player's mind, and that is what it's all about at that level

[Bill McKinley]

D Malley,

The 12th green was in play and, might i say it is quite severe.  There's no way Mike Davis would be able to find 7 pin positions on that green in it's current state.  Love the hole though, and yes it is a shame that they have to do that for the USGA

[D_Malley]

Bill, did you see any bunker work going on out there, or any other fairway re-contouring?   I talked to a couple of merion caddies last week who were telling me about several major changes to the course.  they may of started after you played.

[JR Potts]

I am sorry, but they are ruining my hometown memories. This really sucks. The entire point of the second is to have options - left vs right. The right side was always the best route to the hole. With OB on the right, it was also risky. Left side was safe but brought bunkering and strange angles into play. They are all eliminated now.

I will always remember watching Greg Norman and Tom Watson driving the second hole in the 1981 US Open. Goodness, I sound old but now that hole is simply a different hole.

Stupid.

Agreed.  Sad.

Then again, you can always hit it onto the 5th fairway (5th right?) like I did when I played it.  They're seemingly not narrowing that fairway.

[Brett_Morrissy]

Bill,
Thanks for the pics.
From the photos, the course looks "compact and cozy" - not necessarily as a negative, did you get his feeling after two days or on your initial play?

That first tee shot seems to me, a very cool and particularly fun feature that could only survive at a private club? -  hopefully one day if I get to Merion, it will be for a tee time at lunchtime!.

[Mark_F]

2 tee.  You can see that they're starting to narrow some fairways in prep for the 2013 US Open

Starting to narrow?   It already looks like a catwalk.  Any narrower and you wouldn't even get a supermodel down one.

[Matthew Mollica]

A sad state of affairs.

[Joe Bausch]

Over 200 photos from various days (none from 2011) here:

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/merion/

[JC Jones]

Some of us have the ability to be analytical, some of us have the ability to access!!

Shouldn't you be trumpeting some Doak 4 in random, New Hampshire?

[Mike Sweeney]

Some of us have the ability to be analytical, some of us have the ability to access!!

Shouldn't you be trumpeting some Doak 4 in random, New Hampshire?

Rather than distract this conversation away to states that you have never seen and courses that a Golf Digest rater will never take the time to play, let's focus on common ground:

Merion's 2nd hole

You have played that hole and you have read my critique of what they are doing (it appears) to the hole. We now have the added information that they are adding a back left tee from where this photo was shot.

Where is my critique incorrect?

[Bill McKinley]

Bill, did you see any bunker work going on out there, or any other fairway re-contouring?   I talked to a couple of merion caddies last week who were telling me about several major changes to the course.  they may of started after you played.

D Malley,

There wasn't any bunker work going on when I was there.  Just the work on 1 & 2 fairways to make them narrower.  To my knowledge, they also going narrow the 10th fairway and look at easing the slope in the 12th and 15th greens.  But, I would bet they will add a couple bunkers or rework some of them.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Over 200 photos from various days (none from 2011) here:

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/merion/

Comparing this older picture of #2 from Joe's collection:  http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/merion/pages/page_17.html

Looks like the second fairway has been expanded well to the left towards the OB.  Is it possible the fairway is about the same width as it was just shifted to the right?

[Bill McKinley]

Bill,
Thanks for the pics.
From the photos, the course looks "compact and cozy" - not necessarily as a negative, did you get his feeling after two days or on your initial play?

That first tee shot seems to me, a very cool and particularly fun feature that could only survive at a private club? -  hopefully one day if I get to Merion, it will be for a tee time at lunchtime!.

The course is laid out on about 120 or 130 acres so it is a "small" property.  However that being said, I never got the feeling that it was tightly fit in to the property.  In fact, we were looking at an ariel picture in the clubhouse and one of the guys that we were playing with commented on the fact that there are 3 fairways running side-by-side, but you never really notice it when you play!  The thing i did wonder is about how they're going to handle traffic of the crowds during the Open.  #3 and 6 tees are very close to each other and you have to walk across #1 tee to get from 13 to 14.  But I understand that they're not going to sell as many tickets as they would at a "bigger" US Open venue.

The 1st tee is awesome.  I had seen pictures before I had played but it was quite a different experience when I got there.  Very cool.  I would say the 1st tee at Merion is more nerve racking than the 1st at The Old Course.  I say that because the 1st tee at TOC you can pretty much hit it anywhere.  Not really the case at Merion.