How tough is the rough?

The rough at Merion, as most players saw yesterday, is brutal. Here are a few shots, using a $20 bill and my iPhone as reference points.

"The rough is thick — U.S. Open rough. The rough is thicker right now, because of the water… they haven’t cut it… it’s getting long and thick," Brandt Snedeker told me. "It’s going to be longer than normal because of the length of the golf course."

Furyk said some spots weren't as tough as others:

"It’s tough, it’s thick. You can tell in spots there’s definitely some fertilizer in there, to thicken it up. It’s not overly-overly long, in a lot of spots," he said. "Some of the short holes, like behind 11, it’s got to be 8 inches back there, but it’s not as thick. But you can tell in a lot of areas that they fertilized it and thickened it up."

U.S. Open photo parade pt. 2

Welcome to the U.S. Open! This is day two of the photo parade... I'm Seth, and I'll be your host. Just a note about these photos, they are taken straight from my camera without any Photoshop or light filtering, etc. They're just pics I took. This photo, for example... I did not travel back in time to get it. Instead, I took a photo of one of the promotional signs at Merion.

Some of the guys relaxing in the mid-afternoon.

Rickie Fowler about to go on camera with the USGA. Had no idea the lovely on-air talent was locked in on me when I was about to snap this photo. Had I known, I would have asked them to say, "cheese!" Or, for Rickie, "Go Cowboys!"

Here is the front view of No. 14 tee (/green), which I was writing about yesterday... weird, huh?

A lot of boots on the course these last two days...

The crew gets in dinner before going out on their evening rounds.

Tom Marzolf, senior design associate with Fazio Golf Designers, explains to a couple of golf fans, "I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure the weight room is... THAT WAY..."

Wicker.

Robert Smith observes the fairway mowers as they're in action.

Having one leg doesn't slow this crew member down. Wait...

$6.50 a beer. I confirmed that this price was what they were actually charging. You see, I go the extra mile for you, the reader. Because I care.

A note about these photos: They're all property of Golfdom magazine. But if you're a benevolent entity (read: not one of our mortal enemies... you know who you are) you can "borrow" these photos if you just give a credit to GOLFDOM and a link back to www.golfdom.com. Thanks much.

Furyk, Watson and Snedeker talk conditions

I got a few more player interviews done today.

I avoid the press conferences where everyone gets a typed transcript of what a player says. I prefer one-on-one interviews with players on the course. I believe they're more useful and honest.

I grabbed Furyk after his practice round today at 3 p.m. EST. A colleague (from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) and I interviewed Bubba Watson on the practice range at 4:25 EST. And the Brandt Snedeker talk was a quick one while he signed autographs at 4:45 EST.

Jim Furyk

"(The course is) better now, it was really wet and sloppy (Tuesday) and ripe for scoring. It’s improved a lot more than I could have imagined in just one day…

The problem is, if they get the teeniest bit of rain, it’s going to start flooding up again. I don’t know, in Florida, if we get three or four inches of rain, not a big deal. We drive carts down the middle of the fairways the next day. It’s different types of turf. It’s retaining water.

I feel bad for (the maintenance crew) because I know the worse the weather is, the more problems it causes for them. I’m sure they’re kind of running 24/7 this week, trying to get this golf course in shape. We appreciate all their hard work.

Bubba Watson

The conditions are going to be what they’re going to be. It’s golf. You’re going to have wet conditions, you’re going to have dry conditions. Obviously, we’re going to have wet (conditions) this week.

(Thursday) looks like rain, hopefully it doesn’t. I want to be done with my round before the rain gets here and let the other guys worry about it. I’m waiting to see what happens. You have to be ready for anything. It’s a grueling game, especially at the U.S. Open.

The greens are soft. It doesn’t mean it’s going to play easier, it’s going to play softer. It’s still Merion. It’s still got high rough.

I don’t see the course drying out. It’s still wet. We could play the ball down right now. If the rain comes, I don’t know if the USGA plays the ball up, but… it’s one of those where you just have to play it.

Brandt Snedeker

The course is playing pretty good. It finally dried out, all that stuff. It’s all gonna change tomorrow.

I’m very surprised (with the progress of the course.) They’ve done a great job. The greens are good and fast.

The rough is thick. It's U.S. Open rough… the rough is thicker right now, because of the water… they haven’t cut it… it’s getting long and thick. It’s going to be longer than normal because of the length of the golf course.

Q: When is a tee also a green?

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A: When it’s No. 14 tee at Merion

Keep your eyes peeled for an unusual sight at Merion Golf Club this week: players teeing it up on a green.

Reigning U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson tees it up on No. 14 green. Er, tee.

 Tom Marzolf, senior design associate at Fazio Golf Course Designers, smiled when asked about this unusual circumstance. The green is a practice green for members at Merion, but there’s more to the story than that.

“For the (2005) U.S. Amateur, the decision was made to create a level spot on the green. During the tournament, we picked up the markers and actually played (tee shots) off the green… that was well received, and added a lot of length to the 14^th hole,” Marzolf says. “In the interim, we decided to make the green bigger. We did a 38-yard extension to this green. It’s one of the largest greens here. The green committee asked us to replicate the 17^th green. It mimics the contours of the 17^th green at Merion.”

In the foreground is the normal teeing ground for No. 14.

So Merion has a replica of 17 green that also doubles as a teeing ground for when the big hitters come out to play. Some courses really do have it all, eh?

“One of the issues for the change and why the green got 38 yards longer for the tee on 14, they wanted to put a very large grandstand behind 18. The wider the grandstand, the harder it would be to play 14 from the normal tee. So as we extended this green, we changed the angle of the tee shot to golfer’s left (on 14),” Marzolf says. “The line of play now is down the left-hand side… and now the grandstand on 18 is larger. It was done together.”

This new line means that a stop sign had to be moved on Golf House Road, which adjoins the course. With the new line, players would have had that stop sign as either a distraction or a target.

But isn’t it weird to step up on a green and put a peg down?

“It’s not something you do every day,” Marzolf says. “They’re all hitting woods off the tee, there’s not a divot issue. But it is a unique feeling to walk on to a green and swing away.”

U.S. Open photo parade pt. 1

Welcome to the U.S. Open and my first of three photo parades. My name is Seth, I'll be your host... let's get started.

On the right is Robert Smith, equipment technician here at Merion. That's his brother Mike on the left, and his dad, uh... Mr. Smith, in the middle. Yep, this journalism thing, I've got it down.

The preferred reading of the Merion maintenance tent is Golfdom. This photo proves it. Take THAT, competition. (Gotta beat that competition, yessir!)

The crew, excited to get back out there on the course, on Tuesday afternoon. Once it was discovered that this photo might make a magazine, I had to take it again, so the young lady in the center could take the photo again sans sunglasses.

"And now, a word from our sponsor..." Merion GC superintendent Arron McCurdy speaking to the crew in front of the sponsors banner. Is it just me, or does that Turf Screen logo really pop?

Walk mowers, along with their mats for turn-arounds on the collars, head out for the afternoon shift.

Rakers. Lots of rakers.

The fairway mowers are all lined up and ready to mow.

There were a lot of golf fans out there today. There were also a few of these fans, too.

Rollin', rollin', rollin' fairways.

You see, there is random stuff in the rough. AND WE LIKE IT THAT WAY! (More on the rough in a future post.)

I haven't seen this before: the fairway mowers mow to the end of the fairway, then, one-by-one, they all stop, throw it in reverse, and back their way out of their.

The fairway mowers mow in a staggered line, like this character:     /       ... so no chevron, or flying 'V.' It's a little less dramatic for photos, in general. Still fun to watch, though.

Matt Shaffer, director of grounds at Merion, and his close friend John Zimmers, superintendent at Oakmont CC, observe the crew at work. (Great, great guys to work with.)

Uh-oh... someone got a little arty with a few photos...

A note about these photos: They're all property of Golfdom magazine. But if you're a benevolent entity (read: not one of our mortal enemies... you know who you are) you can "borrow" these photos if you just give a credit to GOLFDOM and a link back to www.golfdom.com. Thanks much.

Zach Johnson 'shocked' at how well Merion holding up

Good news here at the U.S. Open... like Matt Shaffer promised at the Media Center on Monday, this course does dry out surprisingly quick.

Great weather (partly cloudy, light breeze, NO RAIN) on Tuesday sure did help. It was enough to get Zach Johnson, winner of the 2007 Masters, to tell me that the course had him pleasantly surprised.

Johnson had just finished his practice round at 2:45 EST when I caught up with him on the 18th green for a quick one-on-one.

"It's surprisingly really good. I was shocked at how good the course has held up," Johnson told me. Merion has taken on more than 5 inches of rain in the past few days.

"I thought there was a chance the course might be closed today. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the course held up. Hat's off to the grounds crew, the superintendents, and the individuals who worked through the night," Johnson said. "The greens actually have some bounce and roll to them!"

A mower is born

The need for a mower that could handle severe undulations, along with a few inspired turf pros, spawned the creation of the John Deere 180 E-Cut.

ARDMORE, Pa. — This year’s U.S. Open is scheduled to conclude on Father’s Day. For Robert Smith, equipment technician at Merion Golf Club, it’s bound to be his most special Father’s Day yet.

He and his wife welcomed their second girl, McKayla, on April 16^th. Two days later, Smith was back at the course, working on what could also be considered one of his offspring: the John Deere 180 E-Cut Hybrid Walk Greens Mower.

Smith with the mower he helped create.

Both the 180E and Smith’s oldest, Annabella, might be jealous of McKayla. But Smith’s a good dad… he’s got time for all three of his babies.

Championship mower

Smith says that he doesn’t have a favorite — at least, when it comes to equipment.

“Every piece is the same,” he says. “I like working on stuff that doesn’t break.”

But the 180E should get more of his affection than the others. Because Smith, along with Merion’s director of grounds, Matt Shaffer, helped create the innovative mower.

“(Shaffer) came up to me one day and said, ‘I need to go lower with my 22-inch heads.’ I said, ‘That’s not possible, what you see is what you get,’” Smith recalls. “We tried and tried, to get as low as we wanted. The problem was, Merion’s undulations, as far as greens go, were too severe for the 22s.”

Smith, now in his fifth year at Merion, considers mowing heads to be his specialty. So Shaffer’s problem kicked around in his head for a few days, until an idea, like a bolt of lightning, struck.

“We were walking past a piece of equipment that had an 18-inch head on it. (Shaffer) got this idea stirring in his mind.” Smith recalls. “I brought it in the shop, reconfigured a few things… we started mowing about two weeks later.”

The John Deere 180E was born. Designed after the 220E, the 180E meets the demands of superintendents who need a tight, clean cut with an 18-inch swath. Deere says the mower is ideal for courses that need maximum control on undulating greens.

“We had nothing but success with it,” Smith says, sounding like a proud papa. “Instead of leaving it at that, we made 12 of them, converting all our 22s to 18s.”

John Deere saw the success that Merion was having with the mower, and took notice. Beginning in July of 2012, the 180 E-cut became available to courses around the world.

“They’re a championship mower for championship greens,” Smith says.

"I don't care if they get helicopters..."

The players are all talking about the wet conditions in Philadelphia for the U.S. Open. Ernie Els has little doubt that this is going to be a wet contest. This is what he had to say about it at this morning's press conference:

"After the rain this morning, it's going to be very sloppy now. You're not going to see a firm U.S. Open this year, I'm sorry. I don't care if they get helicopters flying over the fairways, it's not going to dry up.

            We're going to have a soft golf course this week all week. It means that if you're on your game you're going to have a lot of birdie putts. There's quite a few par‑4s where you've just got to put it in the fairway. You can put it in the fairway with an iron, from a 5‑iron for a 3‑iron, just putting it into play, and then you've got quite a short second shot.

            I can see pin placements are going to be quite tough to protect the course. You're going to see a lot more birdies than ever at U.S. Open venues. But the finish is still very strong. The par‑3s are very, very strong. And there's some par‑4s; 5 and 6, obviously 18 and 14 is a very strong hole. So there's some really strong par‑4s, but then you've got some birdie chances. I should say the par‑3s are going to be tough."

 

US Open crew walks to raise money for Oklahoma

The crew at Merion Golf Club is working even harder this week than normal, in preparation for next week's U.S. Open.

But they're not just working for the golfers and the TV cameras this week... they're also working for the folks hurt by the tornadoes in Oklahoma.

Led by superintendent Arron McCurdy, the crew at Merion is logging all the miles they walk this week. They're calling it "Walk to the US Open," and they're looking for people to donate money for every mile they walk (or a flat donation) that will go to the American Red Cross.

The details are below. Click here to donate to the cause. As of this writing, the crew has raised $310... I'm sure that will grow in the upcoming days. (And nice job, Pat Douglas, putting in 17 miles on Sunday! Wow!)

From the website:

BENEFITING: American Red Cross
EVENT DATE: Jun 02, 2013

THE STORY:
Merion Golf Club’s Green Department is in the final stages of preparations for the U.S. Open taking place June 10th through the 16th.  We are working long hard hours to ensure a successful Championship. Upon the tragedy in Oklahoma, Merion’s staff wanted to find a way to help the communities affected by this terrible event. 

Matt Shaffer on U.S. Open conditions

Matt Shaffer discusses the arrival of the 2013 U.S. Open, the weather leading up to the event, and what players will get when they find their ball in Merion's rough (Here's a hint: it won't be perfect). Look for part two in the next few weeks...