A.G. Crockett;
Some answers to your questions might be found in the following excerpt that Lorne Rubinstein wrote on Golfweb a few years ago. The USGA asked Nick Price to play Merion and report back as to its suitability for a US Open as far as challenge;
"Price was there at the invitation of the USGA, and played with the association's championship committee chairman Buzz Taylor. He said later that he used every club in the bag at Merion, always a good sign.
Price also said that the course did play quite short and that it would be a terrific U.S. Open site if the USGA could accept something in the neighbourhood of six to ten-under-par winning the championship.
In this case, what's wrong with a slightly lower score winning the U.S. Open? And, after all, Taylor himself said he wouldn't mind a winning score of five or six-under-par.
At the same time we shouldn't forget that Olin Dutra won the 1934 U.S. Open with a score of thirteen-over-par 293. Yes, thirteen-over-par. Sixteen years later along came Hogan to win with his 287, seven over. And in 1971 Nicklaus and Lee Trevino tied with even par 280; Trevino's 68 in the playoff beat Nicklaus by three shots.
Did Merion stand up in the 1934, 1950, and 1971 U.S. Opens? What do you think? There's even an argument that it stood up when David Graham won in 1981 with a seven-under 273. I say this because the greens in 1981 were soft due to rain and more rain.
"If the greens in 1981 had been in the same shape throughout the championship as they had been in 1950," Desmond Tolhurst writes in Merion's history, "when a ball that stopped for a moment on a modest slope could roll right off a green, there's little doubt that no one would have broken par."
No doubt today's golfers -- at least a few, or maybe just the winner -- would break Merion's par of seventy during a U.S. Open. But that's not a given. Not at all. The USGA only needs to take a chance on the weather in June in Philadelphia and hope it is hot, windy, and dry. Heck, it's always a chancy thing to bet on the weather, but isn't that what every tournament organizer does?
"I just love Merion," Crenshaw is saying on the telephone, having played the 1971 and 1981 U.S. Opens there. "It's far more than an architectural gem. There are so many things wrapped up in it, certainly the history but also the thought and balance in the course, the different holes, the different prospects on each hole. It's a breed apart, and the finish is magnificent."
At the same time Crenshaw acknowledges that Merion might not be the test the USGA wants should the course come up damp. Congressional, where the U.S. Open was held last June, was also wet, but it played so long that Ernie Els' winning score was still only four-under-par.
Crenshaw played the first two rounds with Nicklaus, and remembers telling him that Price had played Merion the week before after the USGA asked him to examine the course as a possible U.S. Open venue. Taylor arranged for the plane that picked Price up and took him to Merion during the week of the Kemper Open near Washington.
"I told Jack that wouldn't it be great if we could have the Open back at Merion," Crenshaw recalls. "Jack said we could if the USGA just throttled the ball back about six percent (so that Merion's shortness would not be the critical factor).
At the same time he said, 'Is this what it's going to come to in the future?' We both agreed that while Congressional was very long already it was in effect playing to about 7,400 yards with the soft conditions."
But there isn't much room to stretch Merion's yardage.
As Crenshaw notes, one of its charms is that every inch is already used so intelligently. About all that could be done, after introducing U.S. Open rough and narrow fairways, would be to get the greens hard and fast. But there's a problem here in that many of Merion's greens have so much contour that they would be unfair if they were made super-fast and firm.
Last June 18th, a tournament called the Founders Cup was held at Merion for amateur golfers. It was part of a seventy-two hole event to honour the four founding clubs of the Philadelphia Golf Association. Merion is one of those clubs, and the event there was called "A Celebration of American Golf." Needless to say, it was a success.
The U.S. Open would obviously be a great success in so many ways if it were to return to Merion, a course that is part of the fabric of American golfing life. Merion is one of those courses. A fifth U.S. Open there would be cause for A Celebration of American Golf all right.