Merion and the Retro US OPEN

Let me start out by telling you that I love Merion Golf Club. I grew up a mile or so away from the course and worked there in 1980 and 1981 as Richie Valentine's Assistant. That was a special time for me as I had just finished school and we had the Open coming. Richie was the best. His love of Merion, where he had followed his father as Superintendent (his father, Joe Valentine had taken over from William Flynn), was pure.

Richie's philosophy about golf course maintenance was an eye opener for me. All he really cared about was how the game was played and maintenance was planned to accommodate and enhance the golf experience. Well, sadly, Richie is gone but his spirit lives on with Matt Shaffer, the present Superintendent at Merion. Matt is to say the least an odd and sometimes awe inspiring mix of the old and the new. Matt manages the golf course in a spartan, minimalist fashion in some regards and at the highest levels in other regards. It really is just so interesting to experience his concepts on the golf course and undoubtedly these ideas would be good for the game of golf if adopted by more courses. Matt's ideas and the club's resolve will produce an Open that may be more like an Open of the olden days but with many of the modern techniques. A Richie Valentine quote that Matt fully understands- "Everything Old wasn't Bad and Everything New isn't Good."

Check out this interview with him and you will see what I'm talking about:

Matt Shaffer/Merlon/Golfdom Video

Let's just pray that it doesn't rain on the 2013 US OPEN at Merion.

Good Luck Matt and Merion!

Golf Architecture- Majors and The R&A, USGA, and PGA of America

The best golf courses in the world are routinely asked to make architectural changes to their courses in order to get a Major Championship. It isn't hard to see why a club would succumb to this pressure. After all, golf history and tradition are driving factors in hosting a Major and then of course there are the revenues and prestige for the clubs and courses.

What gives the R&A, USGA, and PGA of America standing, from a Golf Course Architectural standpoint, to change great golf courses? Is anyone in any of these august or semi-august organizations any more qualified to make changes to great golf courses than any group of golfers in the grille or bar after a round of golf? I don't think so. Are these organizations so arrogant as to think that they know how to make the greatest golf courses in the world better than they are?

Today, the most common reason for the architectural changes demanded by these associations is because the golf ball travels much further than it did in the past. So in order to balance their inability and lack of intestinal fortitude to control the distance the golf ball travels in Championships, the great protectors of the game of golf, demand that changes be made to the great golf courses. Shame on them. Maybe St. Andrews should make a local rule for the The Open and tell the R&A how far the ball can go. Maybe Pebble Beach and St Andrew's should have accepted their Opens with the caveat that the distance the ball travels will be the same as it was in say 1972 or 1982. Is that asking too much? Don't these great golf courses have the right to have their golf courses protected from the latest Wham-O Super Ball?

But it's worse than that, even before these organizations lost control of the distance the ball travels, they were making changes to great golf courses. I don't know how far back it goes but I know that it goes back at least to the 1960s with Joe Dey at the USGA making changes for US Opens at two golf courses I know pretty well. Changes were made, that in my opinion did not make the golf holes or courses better, just more one dimensional. What, other than potential revenues to host courses, gives these organizations the right to make architectural changes to great golf courses?

What will it take for the World's Greatest Golf Courses to say enough; if you want to play our golf courses, you'll play it as it is? If you, the governing bodies of golf, have allowed technology to get out of hand, deal with it yourselves and leave our golf courses alone.

The Masters, My one and only trip to Augusta

In 1989 or maybe 1990, I was fortunate enough to get to go to Augusta for the Masters. I had a wonderful experience and was fortunate enough to do some things that the average fan wouldn't ever get to do. The golf course was far different than I had expected. It was an amazing piece of ground and in those years it was far more open than I had expected. And those greens had more slope than any greens I had ever seen.