Merion's layout has evolved from its 19th-century origins

Merion Golf Club’s East Course occupies its acreage so divinely that it is sometimes hard to believe the famed Haverford Township layout didn’t look exactly that way at the Creation.

Surely, perhaps on the day he rested and got the golf bug, God designed Cobbs Creek to wrap itself gracefully, like a gently clutching palm, around three sides of the picturesque 11th green.

And in the beginning, there must have been that towering oak that looms above two front-nine fairways, a natural hazard as imposing as it is splendid.

What purpose beyond instigating late-round terror could be served by the played-out quarry that looms like Satan's abyss on the final three holes?

Even man-made Ardmore Avenue, which parallels the long second fairway, seems better-suited as an out-of-bounds barrier than an automobile thoroughfare.

While its distinctive wicker baskets and white-faced bunkers, its rich history, and stodgy traditions have attracted much of the attention in advance of the 2013 U.S. Open that will be held there, Merion's natural features are often just as compelling.

The creek, the quarry, the oak tree, the road, the gentle slopes were, of course, all there between 1910 and 1912 when Hugh Wilson or, as others believe, C.B. Macdonald began designing the splendid new course.

With the advent of the revolutionary Haskell ball near the turn of the 20th century, Merion Cricket Club's golfers outgrew the nine-hole course they'd built in 1895, just northeast of that club's current Haverford location.

Though the course's creation is shrouded in both mystery and controversy, it's clear that the club soon acquired 120-plus nearby acres, the bulk of which was the old Johnson farm, for a reported $726.50 per acre. The seller was the Haverford Development Co., which hoped the course would lure homebuyers to the then-rural area.

In time, a few small adjacent parcels, including the Dallas Estate - near the site of the current third green - were added or subtracted until Merion's current V-shaped property remained.

It didn't look to have much potential at first. One local writer termed the property "worn-out farmland, none too well-adapted in dimension or topography for golf course purposes."

Merion utilized the Johnson farmhouse as a clubhouse, which, after several additions and renovations, it remains today. But without heavy-duty earthmoving equipment, the course's creators were forced to incorporate rather than reshape many of the property's natural assets.

It turned out to be a blessing.

The rolling fairways that derived from the rolling hillsides lent the course a distinction and, because there are so few flat lies, a degree of difficulty that only adds to Merion's prestige.

Cobbs Creek, meanwhile, passed through some of the original acreage. But it came into play much more prominently after 1922, when the club purchased an eight-acre parcel across Ardmore Avenue from the clubhouse.

Today that stream, a 12-mile tributary of Darby Creek called "Karakung" by American Indians, winds its way near several holes - 4, 5, 9, 11, and 13 - with varying significance.

Its most famous brush with the golf course comes on the 11th, where in 1930 Bobby Jones clinched his Grand Slam. There, golfers have given the creek yet another name, the Baffling Brook.

It's "baffling" because that narrow stream surrounds the lima-bean-shaped green on three sides, which is why over the years it has collected countless stray shots. If golfers leave their approaches short or hit them too long or go too far right, the water eagerly accepts their offering.

The enormous oak tree along the fifth fairway, according to course superintendent Matt Shaffer, might date back to the time of William Penn.

"I can't say that for sure, but I can tell you that it costs us a fortune every year to keep that tree alive," Shaffer said.

Not far away is two-lane Ardmore Avenue. When construction of the course began, it was a dusty country road. So little traffic passed by that three of Merion's original holes - 10, 11, and 12 - were designed to require shots across the road - a drive on 11, second shots on 10 and 12.

After that extra land was purchased in 1922, a redesign eliminated the need for those crossroad shots, the entirety of those three holes moving to the side of the course that contains Nos. 2 through 12.

Maybe Merion's most distinctive feature is the old limestone quarry that was on property the club acquired early on in a land swap with the development company.

That gone-to-seed blemish in the earth is the heart of Merion's fearsome finishing holes, which golf designer Alec Findlay described this way in a 1912 article in the Philadelphia Public Ledger:

"The last five are the most wonderful in the country," Findlay gushed. "In fact, I cannot recall having seen such a succession of holes anywhere. They must be seen and played over to be appreciated."

On the 16th hole, the quarry must be traversed on the approach shot. On 17, it sits between the tee and the long par-3's green. And on the lengthy 18th, it has to be cleared on the drive.

Originally, most of Merion East was barren of trees, befitting its agricultural heritage. In the subsequent century, clusters large and small have grown up throughout the layout, including the stand of trees that separates the 18th fairway from the parking lot.

And the golfers saw everything that God had made and, behold, it was very good.