I for one can’t wait to see Merion come into play at the US Open in 2013.
What a history the place has with Bobby Jones completing the Grand Slam there in 1930 and who could forget arguably the most famous golf photo ever taken of Ben Hogan holding his follow through hitting to the final green in his comeback win of 1950.
May as well throw in David Graham hitting ALL 18 greens in regulation in the final round in 1980 to win his US Open.
Wicker baskets for flagsticks, quarry holes- I can’t wait.
I have never played it (I think aiguille did) and would love to one day. I hope they don’t trick it up too much. What did you see aigiulle when you were there? Long holes- extra tees put in for tournament use or have they not really done much as yet…
Yes, it is still 4 years away!!! but the history and the fact they haven’t played anything there for so long ranks it up there as a classic persimmon age course.
Here’s hoping it can still hold it’s own in the power era of titanium
Should be a good one that! I went to the college next door http://www.haverford.edu/organizations/golf for a year on an exchange from the UK when I was 20. They didn’t have a golf program at the time, though they now do, so I didn’t play at all. I was too busy seeing if I could impress those mainline east coast girls with my english accent - I couldn’t, well not the pretty rich ones anyway 
But I did sneak on to Merion to have a look around, and that wasn’t easy either! For a kid brought up on some rough and ready courses in the UK it was all too picture postcard for me to comprehend with those funny baskets and the fairways that looked like greens to me!
The aussie accent works better Arnie- work on that for your next life… you’ll do better with the girls!!
I will say I love the rough and ready links courses. Here’s a tee , there’s the green with a hole in it- Go Get It!!
That’s how golf was meant to be played- there is a real art to having 5 different routes, and shot selections to get a ball close to the hole- unlike most US courses where all you do is plop it in the air and plop it next to the hole
Nah…I think they thought I was an Aussie when they didn’t think I was South African, that was the problem. As I didn’t take my butler Jeeves with me or have tea at precisely 3pm every day they didn’t have me down as English…