THE DAILY NEWS COVERS THE OPEN: Check out PhillyDailyNews.com's U.S. Open page for our guide to the tournament at Merion.
MERION GOLF Club is the Yankee Stadium of its sport. It is the Boston Garden with nasty bunkers.
Tucked in the bosom of the Main Line, there is no other club in the United States like Merion. It is close enough to Philadelphia to share the airport, but far enough away to avoid the crime. Though Ben Hogan might argue with that.
For all the green jackets Augusta National has given out, it has never crowned a Grand Slam winner. And it probably never will. Neither has St. Andrews. Nor Pebble Beach. But Merion's East Course has.
It was 1930 and Bobby Jones finished off his win in the four most important tournaments of the time by thumping Gene Homans in the U.S. Amateur championship held at Merion. He even signed his scorecard with a pleasant little inside joke (more later).
Before snickering at the era, remember that the 1927 Yankees still are revered as one of the best teams in all of sports and Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in front of the master race. The 1929-31 A's were the greatest baseball teams in Philadelphia history. So, please, do not diminish Jones' Grand Slam because it didn't happen on TV.
Merion, which raised Jones, praised Hogan and nurtured Jack Nicklaus, had never hosted Tiger Woods until this week. The little V-shaped course in Ardmore is no longer logistically ideal for the mess of hospitality tents and slew of TV trucks that have turned the players from distinguished gentlemen to comfortable professionals to pampered millionaires.
Still, the USGA felt the history of Merion demanded the return of its most important championship. Here is just a sampling of why:
* Merion was founded as a cricket club in October 1865 by 16 men, most of whom were students at Haverford College. One of the founders, Archibald R. Montgomery, lost an arm in a cannon accident during Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession earlier that year.
* Golf had been played at Merion's course in Haverford for 8 years by the time the club hosted the 1904 U.S. Women's Amateur. Miss Georgianna Bishop defeated Mrs. E.F. Stanford in the championship 5 and 3. Bishop, from Bridgeport, Conn., was inducted into the Connecticut golf Hall of Fame in 1959. Mrs. Stanford, from Orange, N.J. was just the third married woman to reach the championship of a USGA event.
* Advances in equipment, particularly the invention of the rubberized Haskell ball, rendered many turn of the century courses obsolete. As a result, Merion moved from Haverford to its current location in Ardmore in 1912.
* The man who designed Merion's East Course was a fella named Hugh Wilson, who also designed Cobbs Creek, among others. Wilson was in Europe in the spring of 1912 when he decided to extend his stay and visit courses in southern England. It's a good thing, too. Wilson's original ticket home was aboard the H.M.S. Titanic.
* The first superintendent on the East Course was William Flynn, who is credited with replacing flags on the greens with the famous wicker baskets. He was succeeded by Joe Valentine, who held the position from 1916-68. Valentine was followed by his son, Richie Valentine, who held the post for 20 more years.
* The hardwood floors in the clubhouse are pocked by spike marks from yesteryear. Replacing them would be the golf equivalent of throwing the sacred Shroud of Turin in the washing machine. "The club made a conscious decision when they renovated to keep these floors, which speaks to the level of history that they focus on," Merion curator Andrew Mutch said. "They want the spike marks on the floor. It's like Elfreth's Alley. They left it the way it is."
* Jones' first national event was the 1916 U.S. Amateur at Merion. Jones faced Eben M. Byers, of Pittsburgh in the opening round. As Jones later noted, "We expressed our feelings in exactly the same way: When we missed a shot, we threw the club away. I think the main reason I beat him was because he ran out of clubs first." Jones, 14 years old, made it to the quarterfinals.
* Jones' first U.S. Amateur title came at Merion in 1924 and it started a string of five U.S. Am championships in 7 years. Jones' run of dominance was completed when he won the 1930 Amateur title at Merion and completed the grand slam.
* Behind the tee box on the 11th hole, where he wrapped up the championship by beating Homans 8 and 7, is a plaque set on a rock. "On September 27, 1930 and on this hole," it reads, "Robert Tyre Jones, Jr. completed his "Grand Slam" by winning the U.S. Amateur Championship."
* In his autobiography, Jones wrote "I could not have picked a more propitious setting for this final event of the most important golfing year of my life." After the win, Jones, now 28, retired from competitive golf and devoted his time to his family and his law practice. He also would go on to be a founder of the Augusta National Golf Club near his hometown of Atlanta.
* Inside the clubhouse at Merion is a replica of the 1930 U.S. Amateur trophy and scorecard from Jones and Homans. On the scorecard, as subtle as can be, is a little joke from Jones, who circled the double-bogeys he and Homens carded on the par-4 10th. Above it, Jones wrote, "ha-ha."
* Olin Dutra, battling what was reported to be dysentery, won the first U.S. Open at Merion in 1934. He beat Gene Sarazen by one stroke and won $1,000. Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, each playing in his first U.S. Open, missed the cut.
* Ky Laffoon had been in contention in the 1934 Open, but shot 14-over in the final two rounds and finished tied for 23rd. Laffoon had such a temper that supposedly one time after a tournament he tied his putter to the bumper of his car and dragged it until there was nothing left but the grip.
* Financial difficulty in the midst of the Great Depression caused Merion to restructure itself. The first meeting of a special committee occurred on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941 and by 1942 the Merion Golf Club had been created.
* Ben Hogan had been in a near-fatal car accident just 16 months before the 1950 U.S. Open and was staggering through the final round. On the 13th hole, Hogan informed his caddie that he was quitting. But the caddie, a local kid named Nick Ciocca, was having none of it. "The caddie never breaks stride, looks over and says, 'Mr. Hogan, I don't work for quitters. I'll meet you on the next tee,' " Merion historian John Capers said. "He dragged Hogan to the 14th tee" and to the eventual victory.
* The World Amateur championship in 1960 was not a USGA event, so Merion was not at its most menacing. Still, 20-year-old Nicklaus made quite a statement when he shot 11-under par to help the United States beat Australia by 42 strokes.
* Nearly 20 years after he saved the world from the Nazis, Dwight Eisenhower teamed up with Arnold Palmer in a charity match against three-time Masters winner Jimmy Demaret and actor Ray Bolger (Scarecrow from the "Wizard of Oz"). Ike sank a 45-foot putt on No. 17 to help his team win.
* At the 1971 U.S. Open, Lee Trevino told his caddie, a senior at St. Joe's named Tom Tadeo, "If I win this thing, I'm going to give you three big ones," Capers said. "The kid is thinking $300, but Trevino peels off $3,000 and gives it to him." Adjusted for inflation, it was the equivalent of $17,000 and was 10 percent of the $30,000 Trevino received.
* The playoff between Trevino and Nicklaus started when Trevino pulled a rubber snake from his bag, which gave the gallery a laugh. Trevino tossed it back to Nicklaus and won the playoff by three strokes.
* Jim Thorpe became the first African-American to lead a U.S. Open when he carded a 4-under 66 in 1981 at Merion. He eventually finished eight shots behind David Graham, who became the first Australian to win our national championship.
* Capers, a scratch golfer, qualified for the 1966 U.S. Amateur, but couldn't competed because he was drafted into the military. His mom, Mary, was a 10-time club champion and a perennial contender for the U.S. Women's Amateur.
Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus built Merion's iconic reputation. It is Capers, predecessor George Scudder, curator Mutch, club president Rick Ill and others you've never heard of who keep it alive.
"The best place to be is 11 o'clock at night with nobody on the terrace and thinking about all the ghosts that have been there," Capers said, his eyes beginning to water. "There's no question about it. We're just very, very fortunate as a club to have had all these things happen here."