No. 12 at Merion East.
Yards: 403, par 4
Architect: Hugh Wilson, 1912 (course rated No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best Classic list)
Where: Ardmore, Pa.
Event: Walker Cup, Sept. 12-13
It’s great because . . . it’s Merion, with all of its wonderfully disheveled elegance. The hole plays through a narrow chute of trees to a fairway canted left to right, protected by bunkers on the high side and dense tree canopies on the bolder, low side. A precipitous green looks like it’s sliding off its moorings and about to tumble into a steep front-right bunker.
It would be even better if . . . the green was rebuilt to marginally reduce the slopes of the putting surface to provide more than two adjoining hole locations on a green that’s too heavily pitched for modern putting speeds. There’s no problem taking the existing contours and toning down all of them by dropping the back of the green 3-4 feet and reproducing (in more moderate fashion) the same relative slopes on the hole. Then they’d have more pin-able ground for a greater mix of hole locations, including front left and back right over that bunker.
Comments
Linkstraveler (anonymous) says...
Mr Kleins description is accurate. The hole plays longer than the indicated yardage as it is uphill all the way and the player needs to carry the ball well onto the green surface to keep it there. Front hole locations don't work with speeds of 11 or 12 on the stimp meter, you can putt or chip the ball off the surface coming from the back of the green and it will roll down the hill some distance. 4 is a good score here and 6 can happen in a hurrry if you are not precise. If the green was 7 on the stimp there would be more front hole locations. Mr Kleins suggestion that the green's pitch be softened is a good one given modern speeds.
November 6, 2009 at 6:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )