The setup of #2 at Merion

[jeffwarne]

Is it me or is really just stupid?
Bunkers deep in the rough, fairway as close to OB as possible for no reason other than to make it harder.

[Tom_Doak]

Plus, putting a fairway immediately next to a public road presents monstrous safety issues for the weeks that they aren't playing the U.S. Open.  In Australia you'd go to jail for doing that!

[jeffwarne]

and if you drive fearlessly to the right side of the fairway-tree trouble!

[DMoriarty]

Photo and description from the online course guide at usopen.com


This fairway has been shifted to the player's right to create a more demanding tee shot. Players have a choice from the teeing ground: play the hole conservatively as a three-shotter, or attack the hole with a driver or 3-wood. Out of bounds looms closely on the right, and the rough on the left is some of the deepest on the course . . ..

". . . for no other reason than to make it harder" is the key statement in the original post, I think. 

[Bill McKinley]

Let me preface this by saying that I love Merion. It's one of my favorite places. But that picture of #2 makes me want to puke. The left bunker in the rough, the trees overhanging the fairway, the bunkers up the right that are just pretty much under the trees and making everyone pretty much just aim at the road! It would seem that when the fairway was over to the left and the left fairway bunker was right next to the fairway it was a much better hole. Oh well, I guess I just hope they move it back to its original spot after the tournament

[Mike Sweeney]

Photo and description from the online course guide at usopen.com


This fairway has been shifted to the player's right to create a more demanding tee shot. Players have a choice from the teeing ground: play the hole conservatively as a three-shotter, or attack the hole with a driver or 3-wood. Out of bounds looms closely on the right, and the rough on the left is some of the deepest on the course . . ..

". . . for no other reason than to make it harder" is the key statement in the original post, I think. 

I am being boring and redundant - in 1981, I was 30-40 yards left of the now fairway when Greg Norman and Tom Watson teed off on #2 on Friday. Yikes!

[Brian Chapin]

Has anyone else noticed a second sod line on the 2nd hole this week?  I was there on Monday and it seemed a bit wider to me than my last visit a year and a half ago... There are two distinct bentgrass sod lines on that fairway... one being the obvious expansion on the right bringing the fairway closer to the roadd... the other on the left side.  Did they make it small and then decide later to expand it back a little?  What am I missing?

[Bill Brightly]

Photo and description from the online course guide at usopen.com


This fairway has been shifted to the player's right to create a more demanding tee shot. Players have a choice from the teeing ground: play the hole conservatively as a three-shotter, or attack the hole with a driver or 3-wood. Out of bounds looms closely on the right, and the rough on the left is some of the deepest on the course . . ..

". . . for no other reason than to make it harder" is the key statement in the original post, I think. 

By zooming in on the fairway, I don't think this photo does justice to the narrowness of this fairway. From the tee it looks like a bowling alley, a "look" that is almost surreal. My bet is they change the mowing lines next week...

[DMoriarty]

Here is a clip from the Oct. 7, 2011 Google Aerial.  Did they sod in or grow in the added strip of the rough? 

For reference, that yellow line is 23 yards long and it approx. 300 yards from the tee. 

[Ronald Montesano]

Devil's Lawyer says the fairway is commensurate with the wetness. Had it played fast and firm, they might have had the fairway equivalent of #7 Shinnecock green on their hands.

This is a professional event and they play the game differently than do amateurs. I personally would prefer to be in the left rough sand than the left rough rough.

Interesting point about the sod lines. Hope that aspect of the thread develops.

How low do those tree branches hang? I suspect that our perspective is off and that they are not nearly as punitive as they appear. I anticipate that drives that hit them will drop down and not punish the offender too much.

I was the official scorer for the #5 group at the NY State Federation HS championship last weekend at Bethpage Black. The courses were closed on Saturday, due to Friday's deluge. On Sunday, the #5 players absolutely blasted the ball into the stratosphere. These were decent high school players, mind you, not D-1 prospects, and they flat-out flew the ball past everything.

This tee shot, therefore, is not demanding. If it required a draw, it would be demanding. It is a baby cut, off the rough line to the left for right-handers. Balls will land softly and birdies will be plentiful.

[Matthew Essig]

Here is a clip from the Oct. 7, 2011 Google Aerial.  Did they sod in or grow in the added strip of the rough?  

For reference, that yellow line is 23 yards long and it approx. 300 yards from the tee.  

I am really tired so may be totally wrong but I swear the bunker on the left in the rough near the green has moved and is in line with the green as seen from the tee shot area. I think the fairway is much closer to the bunker in the middle of the hole, the one that looks like the Texans logo. Picture I have seen do not quite match with what I saw today as if fairway lines moved or bunkers moved.

The different look in the fairway grass on hole two appear to be pure bent grass on the edges and bent/poa in the middle. Looks bad but I am sure it doe not effect play. What is odd is that this is a group of people obsessed with presentation and by using pure bent sod they have given a bad look to the hole. Surprised they paid so little attention to detail.

The bunker about 40 yards short of the green was shifted to the middle to make a more demanding approach...

[Carl Johnson]

Is it me or is really just stupid?
Bunkers deep in the rough, fairway as close to OB as possible for no reason other than to make it harder.

Apparently Zach Johnson (no relation) is on your side, in general.  Now if we could just pin him down on #2.  From the Golf Channel:

ARDMORE, Pa. – Zach Johnson used strong words to describe his disappointment with the way the USGA set up the U.S. Open at Merion.  “I would describe the whole golf course as manipulated,” Johnson said.  Johnson doesn’t like the way the USGA altered the natural character of Merion.  “It just enhances my disdain for the USGA and how it manipulates golf courses,” Johnson said.

[jeffwarne]

As long as the Golf world uses scores in relation to par as a measure of a course's "worthiness", no positive steps will be made in golf course architecture.
and that is the current popular line at the moment here on GCA and in most commentary on TV and press.

To be fair Mike Davis publicly states that he has no "target" score in mind, and that weather etc, will play a large part in the final scores.
Zach Johnson has it right, but then that's what makes a US Open unique,so I'm OK with that.
It is stunning to see how much criticism Augusta gets for a strip of rough about Merion fairway height, yet Merion's setup is glorified despite all hazards being desireable points of refuge from the gnarl.

One thing I would add is Merion is NOT short, even if there are a few short holes.

[Wade Whitehead]

I was amazed at how many players hit hybrid on the second tee yesterday.

WW

[DMoriarty]

I was amazed at how many players hit hybrid on the second tee yesterday.

WW

Why? Isn't this exactly what the USGA was trying to accomplish by pushing the fairway to flush against the road?  It seems to be a pretty narrow and dangerous target for driver or even three wood, especially considering the right quarter of the fairway has trees overhanging.  Seems like the second hole has been setup and changed with two goals in mind: Keep players from getting home in two, and keep the scoring average high on what ought to be an easier but more exciting hole.

As the hole was setup in 1930 (before the green was pushed back) Bobby Jones was able to go for the green in each of his qualifying rounds.

That must have been more exciting than watching the best golfers in the world hit hybrids off the tee on what would otherwise be a reachable par five.    

[Joe Bausch]

I paced off the 2nd FW in the driver landing zone early in the week.  It is pushing almost 30 yards wide.  Probably about 28.

And there are some overhanging branches, but I don't think 1/4 of that width.

[DMoriarty]

Regardless of the exact measures and fractional tree overhang, it sounds like quite a few of the world's best golfers no longer think it makes sense to hit driver or three wood on the hole.  Don't you think this was the goal of the USGA?   

Turning to the measures . . . looking at Google Earth and using the edge of the dirt as the fairway line, the fairway looks to be about 28 yards wide to about 285 yards, then it narrows to about 23 or 24 yards wide from around 285 to 330 yards off the tee.  In other words, it looks wider for the layup, and narrower for the driver.

Or perhaps the torn up turf in the photo doesn't properly define the fairway line?  Do you think they had torn up all that turf to expand the fairway right?

Here is a closeup from the same aerial.



The white line is 23.6 yards. The yellow line is 20 yards, and at the same point as the yellow line, the fairway looks to be about 28 yards. 

Wow. Look at those trees. I sure hope they cut them back.   If not then a quarter of the fairway seems too conservative.

[Joe Bausch]

You are right once again David.

My bad.

[Mark Bourgeois]

The linear width of the fairway does not begin to explain the issue: where the fairway necks down it also cants significantly to the right. Fairway widths combined with cant make for craziness on several other holes out there, including 4 and 12.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom Doak,

How long would it take to return this fairway to it's prior location ?



WILL the club ever return the fairway to it's intended location ?

[Sean Leary]

Would those bunkers in the rough ever be in play this week under any possible circumstances? Look where David's 300 yard marker is.
It looks silly, for sure. But they would never be in play. Would love to see them returned once the Open leaves.

Note that on holes like 1 where the bunkers are in play, they have a fairway cut leading into them.

[Jason Thurman]

Would those bunkers in the rough ever be in play this week under any possible circumstances? Look where David's 300 yard marker is.
It looks silly, for sure. But they would never be in play. Would love to see them returned once the Open leaves.

Note that on holes like 1 where the bunkers are in play, they have a fairway cut leading into them.

Agreed 100%.

For the world's best this week, as goofy as the pictures look, I actually like the setup of the hole. An easily reachable par 5 where the best in the world are limping to bogeys, doubles, and triples along with the occasional eagle or birdie is pretty cool to me.

Also, if we accept that the fairway was always going to be narrowed for US Open purposes, I'd rather they swing it to the right side where OB and bunkers further up the fairway are in play rather than swing it left where no hazards would have been in play. Right or wrong, strategic width just isn't part of the setup for the US Open. With that in mind, I think they found the best answer for that hole.

[Greg Taylor]

Reading this thread, and to this untrained eye, I'm totally with ZJ here.

Moving the fairway right achieves only one thing, make the hole harder, whilst robs the hole of it's original intent and it's easiness on the eye.