"Merion: 3 Inches of Rain and Counting"

[David_Tepper]

My apologies if this has shown up on another thread:

http://gcm.typepad.com/gcm/2013/06/one-look-at-the-11th-green-today-at-merion-golf-club-was-enough-for-superintendent-arron-mccurdy-as-the-us-open-nears-at.html

[Micah Woods]

And here is the update to that:

http://gcm.typepad.com/gcm/2013/06/what-a-difference-a-day-makes-at-merion-golf-club-the-rain-has-stopped-so-little-wonder-that-optimism-reigns-supreme-for-d.html

"It (water) never went over the top of the green," says McCurdy, a 4-year GCSAA member, who on Friday noted that the water came within 6 inches of the top of the famed 11 green where legend Bobby Jones capped off his U.S. Amateur triumph in 1930, securing the Grand Slam. "We did creek bank work earlier this year at 11, and it looks like it might have helped us."

Except for a few greenside bunkers that were washed out, McCurdy says there were no other major issues. It didn't hurt that more rain missed the East Course today "by a hair," McCurdy says. Late this afternoon, they were mowing the greens. Earlier, they mowed fairways and tees.

[Ian Larson]

It's nice to see Hank (Arron) finally getting a little press time for all this. From my home town in central Pa. Hank took a pay cut to join Matt's staff as a Spray Tech 5 years ago and stayed in our friends basement at first and worked his way up to the East Course Superintendent. Merion might not be rock hard but nothing is going to prevent this from being a great Open.

[John Foley]

I was told they had a plan to tarp the greens in case they received this much rain in the run up to the open. Did that actually happen?

[Sean Leary]

Too bad about the rain. Damn, a dried out Merion would have been fun to see. The narrowed fairways will keep the scores in check a bit, which is of course why they did it. Without it 20 under might have happened, which is fine for us architecture nerds but not what the USGA, Merion and the general public wants. IMO.

[Kris Shreiner]

Fret not, the sun is out! So long as we don't get hit hard again, the track should hold up and even exhibit some firmness later in the week.

Cheers,
Kris

[Chris Munoz]

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/friday-downpour-soaks-merion/


check out the link.