Ross is right. I am guilty of hijacking a simple thread asking about the design characteristics of a GREAT golf course--Merion Golf Club. (For my critics, please grant me a little latitude here.)
In description, the fact is that Merion, Buddy Marucci bunkers and all is still a GREAT, but forever altered and harmed classic. But for those of you new to Golf Club Atlas, and those of you who have never seen Merion with your own eyes, it is unfortunate that the powers that be so unwisely took away 85+ years of breath-taking evolution by unwisely trying to interpret pictures from 1929. This was the type of restoration that was not only uninformed but ill-advised. The powers that be simply didn’t know how to handle this course with a certain fragility.
Many of you new to this type of talk will no doubt see the new bunkers with clean and crisp lines that look neatly maintained and manufactured. They have a total artificial, constructed look to them and the advent of crushed white marble didn’t do them any favors either. Gone are the intricate slopes, angles, and shapes. In its place are curled-edged “maintained” outlines that depict the bunkers more as modern gimmick that one can see at any CCFAD (Country Club For A Day)
The fact is that the bunkers at Merion may have needed a slight nip and tuck, but nothing so severe as we see today.
The best period to recreate the look of Merion would more then likely be from the 1981 US Open, where it has been described to me that the bunkers fully emphasized the attractive rough-at-the-edges appeal of the course. This look is what DEFINED Merion Golf Club. The Scotch Broom that grew in the bunkers was in full bloom, and the bunkers truly looked ferocious not from depth, but more from that au’natural scrape of sand and earth exposed from all of the elements of wind, rain, heat and cold battering the rolling terrain. These sand hazards truly were white faces of fear, something to avoid because if you were in one, you were likely being provoked by them to take on “Chance” meaning that recovery was a possibility requiring a deft touch, and they actually invited you to do as such. For the player whose game may not be up to par, this could spell a certain doom. The bunkers also defined the characterization of the site itself--the absolute perfection of the routing of the course. (It happens to be one of my favorite routings in the game) as well as placement of those hazards. While typing this, I can’t help but think of the location of the target of the par 3, 3rd or the slope of the green at #5 which is a study of something many still have trouble understanding--the emphasis of Nature.
I salute the club’s wisdom for wanting to remove encroaching trees and recover fairways, which was tightened for that US Open, but can anyone imagine how great the course would be with that return look of the bunkers and shared fairways? (the maintenance meld that so many of us hope to see recaptured.)
While your original question is mostly pertaining to building Merion-East for one of the computer games, please remember that when doing so that the rugged lines of nature is what Merion was all about--not perfectly clean and crisp computer generated accuracy. It was the informal scraggly lines that were perfect, not the straight ones. I also recommend obtaining a copy of the World Atlas Of Golf, which further depicts the course. I also hope these pictures can help shed some light on what I am talking about.
Good luck.
#1-One of the best opening holes in Golf
#2, with hole #5 at the left. Can anyone see the maintenance meld needed on this hole?
#3 A True White Face]
#4
#7-The apporach in.
#7-This image properly depicts what could have been. These bunkers were properly restored by Gil Hanse and Company along with former Merion Club Professional-Bill Kittleman. Sadly, they were re-restored.
From Hole 7 looking over to green #5. A perfect description of the terrain at Merion
#10
#11-Site of maybe one of the Game’s brightest moments
#12