Article on Merion

Golf Digest has an interview with the former USGA exec. dir. David Fay. http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/us-open/2013-06/us-open-david-fay I thought it was interesting from an ABS point of view because 1) He talks about how important financial considerations are in the choosing of venues, and 2) they don’t expect some players to need to hit a driver and (3) will be hitting wedges into 8 or 9 greens. And this open is considered a “referendum on the distance issue.” I wonder if it isn’t a “referendum on the equipment issue.” It will be interesting to see the course setup. Will they have to trick it up to have any defense at all? I’ve never seen the course, but this seems like it might be a perfect example of a great course made obsolete by equipment. I hope it can hold up.

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Looking forward to this being true. Hope I don’t see guys stopping the ball on the greens from the rough like the last few years.

Some US Open courses you might be able to get away with bombing it… Not at Merion… Even the par 5’s there’s no advantage to hitting it 300+ … If someone hits a bunch of fairways and greens and shoots -15, I don’t care… It plays a lot longer than the scorecard says because you have to lay back on a lot of holes… It’s going to be fun to watch, and no, modern gear won’t make a difference there except for the hybrids… Graham Mcdowell said if you miss a fairway, you’re punching out… My predicting winning score, -5…