Hard to believe,
but U.S. Open week has arrived in Delaware County with the 2013 version teeing
off in just four days at Merion Golf Club’s famed East Course in the Ardmore
section of Haverford Township.
The USGA guys
probably swallowed hard while watching three-plus inches of rain deluge the
East Friday. Any hopes that Merion will be really firm and fast for the Open
were probably dashed by that little act of God.
But it rained
really hard in the days leading up to the Walker Cup Match in 2009. I know, I
know those guys were amateurs. But I always remember Rickie Fowler, who was
about to turn pro in a couple of weeks, sitting there in the afterglow of the
U.S. victory and saying, “they can make
this golf course as hard as they want to.”
And well, for the
first U.S. Open at Merion in 32 years, they’re going to want to. The rough is
certainly up from 2009 and way up from the 2005 U.S. Amateur.
From some of the
things I’ve read leading up to this week, most of the PGA Tour pros believe one
of their considerably talented number is going to go seriously low this week,
so low that the Open will never, ever come back to Merion.
But you don’t hear
that from the few guys who have played Merion under championship conditions,
guys like Fowler and defending champion Webb Simpson.
You won’t find a
bigger fan of Merion East than me. You might even want to brand me an
apologist, but you can’t. I’ve never had to apologize for a great golf course
that can bring out the best and worst in any given golfer, sometimes in the
same round.
It will be a very
interesting week. I’ll be hanging out there, writing columns for the Daily Times. There is absolutely nothing
like watching the very best players in the planet do their thing. It had been
too long since I had seen top PGA Tour pros in action live before the AT&T
National’s two-year sojourn at Aronimink. That I’ll get to watch them at my
favorite golf course in the world this week is icing on the cake.
Who do I like? I
guess I should at least try to make a prediction in the Daily Times sometime before the National Open tees off Thursday. I
will say I am leaning away a little from guys like the dream trio of Tiger Woods,
Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott because they are coming in so cold as far as
knowledge of the golf course. But great players have always, always … did I say
always? … played well at Merion. So there’s that.
I’m leaning toward a precision guy. But who is
that guy? I’ll have to think it over. Jim Furyk certainly fits the bill. Steve
Stricker, maybe somebody like him, but who isn’t quite as old and plays more.
Brandt Snedeker, maybe, if he wasn’t hurting, which seems to be affecting his putting
as much as anything.
It’s only four days
away, so I better get cracking. Four days until the 2013 U.S. Open comes to
Merion. Hard to believe it’s really here.
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