Patience and skill keys to finding pedigree winner at Merion

WHEN picking a modern day venue capable of meeting the demands of a US Open, the USGA have recently identified huge properties like Congressional, Bethpage & Torrey Pines, all of which have the course strength, the size and infrastructural capability to allow them to maximise the commercial return from the attendance of 50,000 spectators a day.

While no one can legitimately argue with the USGA’s commercial rationale or the fact that their decisions have diminished the status of the US Open in any way, it is commendable that this year they have taken the bold decision to take “a step back in time” by bringing the US Open back to Merion, a tiny landlocked venue, (famed for producing pedigree winners) which has half the spectator capacity of a normal US Open venue as well as a multitude of logistical problems for the players and spectators alike. That said, Jack Nicklaus has famously said of Merion: “Acre for acre, it may be the best test of golf in the world.”

Merion at 6,996 yards is the shortest US Open venue since Shinnecock back in 2004 but through the use of its heroic style of design, expect to see the players continually tested and tempted by swirling winds and holes whose best angles for the approach shots to the greens are those closest to the trouble, which at Merion is often the out of bounds.