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Merion's East course has long been considered one of the finest tests of golf in the US, but no longer long enough to be a demanding test for the world's best players. However, I came across an article stating that how well the course holds up in the stroke play portion of the US Amateur held there later this month could determine whether the USGA will send a future US Open to the course.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:

Here is the entire article: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/g...golf-headlines

So, what do you think? Will the course hold up well enough to deem it a challenge to the best players in the world or will the possibilty of one of golf's great venues hosting another US Open in the future dissolve completely?

For comparison, when Pebble Beach held the US Open in 2000, it was playing at 6846 yards at a par of 71. Merion will be 6846 yards and par 70 for the US Amateur. Despite the distance gains in the past 6 years, I still believe that the course could test the world's best enough to be worthy of a US Open, given the right conditions. I'll wait to add anything else until someone else chimes in.

If my memory serves me right, there are also problems with other logistics beyond the course itself, mainly parking, crowd control, and the availablity around the course for corporate tents. These factors are far different when they last played the Open there in 1981. Edit: I didn't read the article that you had a link to - they might have mentioned those things, so sorry if I'm mentioning stuff that was already mentioned in the Baltimore Sun.

On a side note, I don't remember the final winning score for David Graham, but I do remember he hit all 18 greens and every fairway in the last round. He did have one 3-putt green, but that was the only miscue the entire round. Graham doesn't get enough credit, IMO, in the history books as that being one of the best ball striking rounds ever in an Open. If that were Nicklaus, Woods, or Hogan, they'd still be talking about it. And Graham was far from being a one-hit wonder - he had a very solid career here in the States and worldwide.

Graham's winning total in 1981 was 273, or 7 under.

As for the logistics of crowd control, corporate tents, parking, etc....here's all they had to say in the article:

Sorry for digging up an old thread...but it was announced this week that Merion will be the site of the 2013 US Open. It should be interesting to see how it holds up 7 years from now when the bombers should out in even greater numbers on the PGA Tour.