back across Ardmore Avenue, but in the 1920s, when
the course was reconstructed by William Flynn, the
increased traffic on the road made playing across it
impossible. “Ardmore Avenue was not a road when the
course was done by Wilson,” says Marzolf. “When the
road was put in, the routing had to change, and several
holes had to change.”
The fourteenth hole is a prime example of the
challenges Marzolf faced. “The tee is adjacent to the
eighteenth green and in front of the clubhouse area,” he
says. “We lengthened the fourteenth onto the members’
putting green. We rebuilt that area and players at the
2005 US Amateur and 2009 Walker Cup played right off
the putting green. From this tee location, the adjacent
Golf House Road is very close. Some players may try
to hit over the bending curve of the road to get further
down the fairway.”
Merion’s long-serving superintendent Matt Shaffer,
regarded for many years as one of the leading figures in
American greenkeeping, has played a major role in making
the course suited to test the best players in the world. “The
one thing that’s new this year is that the intermediate cut
along the sides of the fairways is being eliminated. They’re
going to go from the fairway directly into the graduated
rough. There will be two heights of rough–depending
on the length of the hole, the width of the first cut will
vary. On a long hole, the first cut–which is mowed at 3.5
inches–is wider, 15-18 feet. On the shorter holes, that
band is narrower. Matt has created a mower with the deck
at an angle to bevel cut the grass, so you don’t have 3.5
inch rough right at the fairway edge. I suspect that a lot of
people won’t notice that the intermediate cut is gone, but
the players will!”
Once the Open is finished, Marzolf and his team will
be back at Merion, helping the club put its course back
into prime condition for member play. The tightness of
the club’s property has meant a number of alterations
to US Open standard procedure, notably the use of the
West course, on a
separate site a couple
of miles down the road,
as the championship
practice range. The East
course’s existing practice facility
is being used to house the tented
village, and returning the range to use
will be among Marzolf’s first tasks. “We’re
going to rebuild the members’ practice range
straight after the tournament,” he says. “We
should be working on it by early July, but the
amount of work will depend on the weather during
championship week. If we get a dry week, there
shouldn’t be too much to do, but if it’s a wet, wet
week it could be much more.”
During its storied history, Merion East–host to more
USGA championships than any other golf course–has
been the venue for Jones’s Grand Slam, arguably the
greatest achievement in the history of the game, and Ben
Hogan’s legendary 1950 US Open victory, returning from
a near-fatal car smash to reclaim his place at the top of
golf. Now, the finest players of the 21st century have their
opportunity to write their names into Merion’s story, and
Marzolf is proud to have played his part in making the
return possible. “It’s great to be back at Merion, and it’s
great for the USGA to be reintroducing this wonderful
golf course to a new generation of players,” he says. But,
of course, the USGA has long wanted its Open to be golf’s
COVER STORY
10
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By Design
The project was a collaboration between club,
architects and the USGA
