Merion Golf Club East

Hugh Wilson finished Merion East in 1912 on a piece of Main Line Philadelphia land that would not be considered remotely large enough for a modern championship venue. The course plays under 7,000 yards, sits on roughly 110 acres, and runs across both sides of a public road that bisects the property. And yet Merion has hosted five U.S. Opens, two U.S. Amateurs, the 1981 Walker Cup, and the most-discussed shot in the history of the championship — Ben Hogan's 1-iron to the eighteenth green in the 1950 U.S. Open, a year and four months after the bus accident that nearly killed him. Wilson designed the routing with the help of Charles Blair Macdonald and the Merion membership, working through quarry holes (sixteen, seventeen, eighteen) that cross the abandoned quarry on the property's east side.

Merion East plays around 6,996 yards par 70 from the championship markers, with a slope in the upper 140s and the famous wicker basket flagsticks that the club has used since opening. The fairways are tight, the rough is penal, and the green complexes — small, contoured, perched on natural terrain — are the architectural defense. The eighteenth is a 521-yard par-4 from the quarry tee, with the second shot played across the quarry to a green tucked behind the lip — the hole Hogan played his 1-iron from for the tie that forced Sunday's playoff with Lloyd Mangrum and George Fazio.

Merion is private and access is members and accompanied guests only. The club operates two courses — East and West — but East is the championship routing. The 2013 U.S. Open (Justin Rose) was the most recent major hosted, and the USGA has scheduled the 2030 U.S. Open for the same routing.

Philadelphia regional climate gives Merion a long playing season — April through November — with the firmest conditions in September and October. The course closes for brief winter cold snaps but reopens within days. The property's small footprint and the routing across the public road give the round a distinct sequencing — the club operates the road crossing as a routine member-day procedure.