Open could still be damp fine tournament

The Daily News covers the Open: Check out PhillyDailyNews.com's U.S. Open page for our guide to the tournament in Merion.

IT HAD RAINED 5 inches in Ardmore over the previous week when Lee Westwood teed off on No. 17 late yesterday afternoon. He wiped his hands, turned to his entourage and, according to a marshal, said, "Merion isn't very merry today."

Quite a comment, coming from an Englishman.

Three separate downpours yesterday were enough to harry even the heartiest golfers as they prepared for the U.S. Open, which starts at the venerable course's East track Thursday. The rains closed one of the tournament holes for the day and might have closed one of the parking lots for good.

Still, USGA officials and Merion staffers offered assurances that, if the forecast holds, the tournament would be relatively unaffected. They quashed whispers of emergency plans that included using holes on Merion's West course.

"It's 10,000-to-1 that we would have that happen," said USGA executive director Mike Davis.

He had to raise his voice over the rain pounding on the roof.

The more relevant issue is how the wet conditions will affect the actual golf. Merion is not a long course. Its best defenses are fairways and greens that are hard to hold.

It would take 3 days of dry, breezy weather to make little Merion its most challenging, said superintendent Matt Shaffer. However, only 2 days remain, and forecasts for today and tomorrow include chances of rain of 50 percent or less. The forecast for Thursday: 70 percent chance of rain.

So, Merion will be wet and receptive through Friday evening's cut.

"You're not going to see a firm U.S. Open this year, I'm sorry. I don't care if they get helicopters flying over the fairways, it's not going to dry up," said two-time champion Ernie Els. "We're going to have a soft golf course this week all week. It means that if you're on your game, you're going to have a lot of birdie putts."

That would make sense, but Merion is supposed to be remarkable in its ability to dry out. Saturday's golf might be more challenging, and, if the USGA decides to be nasty, Sunday's conditions could be diabolical - as in, lightning greens and crusty fairways.

Yesterday was diabolical in a different way: wet, wet and wetter. Merion has not hosted a professional tournament since 1981, so most of the field had not played the tricky track before now.

That was the case for Scott Stallings, who caddied at Merion in the 2005 U.S. Amateur for Tennessee Tech teammate Braxton Hunter but never played it. Stallings was one of dozens of PGA golfers who endured an hour delay in the morning and another hour delay in the afternoon to just get a taste.

Stallings, who finished second at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis on Sunday, played six holes in the evening rain, hit a few chips from behind the 18th green . . . and that was all.

Asked how many pros would have bothered to show up at all in those conditions if they already knew the course, Stallings replied:

"Zero. I know I wouldn't be out here. I just hope we get the chance to prepare the way we need to prepare."

Like much of the field, Stallings had no chance to prepare for No. 11. The lowest portion of the course is the landing area of the 11th fairway, where two streams converge. That area was sloppy all day, and caused the hole to be closed twice.

Water also inundated a greenside bunker on No. 11. When the rain stops, the bunker will be emptied of water with pumps that pump 40 gallons per minute, then resurfaced with 3 tons of new sand, if needed.

Most important, the green on No. 11 was unaffected. It has needed work at least 40 times in just over a decade, said Shaffer, and yesterday's lack of crisis was the result of tens of thousands of dollars of foresight.

"We've done a lot of work there," Shaffer said. "We did things to help the water get out in other areas so that the green could stay high. It was all [precautionary] when we were doing it, but it's playing out pretty well."

The 11th is a key hole since half the field will start on No. 11 on Thursday and Friday (the second starting tee in most tournaments is No. 10). A possible scenario: Players hit into the landing area on No. 11, find the lie unplayable, take their drop nearby and proceed.

Davis said the tournament will not be played with the lift, clean and place rule no matter how messy the conditions.

Shaffer expects no special strategies will be needed. When the rains slow and the creeks can absorb more runoff, standing water on the fairways will dissipate much more quickly than, say, in your backyard.

"There's hundreds and hundreds of miles of drains on this course," Shaffer said. "We see a puddle, we put a drain there."

Shaffer added that, by tomorrow night, the full contingent of the 175 superintendents expected to work the U.S. Open will have descended on Ardmore from lands as distant as the golfers': England, Australia, New Zealand, even Panama City.

The one in Panama.

Considering the moisture on the course and the rains expected in the next 72 hours, that workforce will have plenty to do, despite Davis claiming that Merion is the "best-draining golf course I have ever seen."

Meanwhile, amid the raindrops and the puddles, the players will spend the next 2 days figuring out how to tackle this short, hairy beast.

The rains will ensure not only long rough but the thick, juicy sort that snares clubheads and wrenches wrists. As usual, avoiding the rough at a U.S. Open will be the main objective, but more so this year given Merion's smallish, well-protected greens.

He who finds the fairways will be able to fire at pins set in greens that will be unusually receptive. Therefore, the pros will spend the next 48 hours deciding which club to hit off Merion's tees, and on which line to hit it.

For instance: Brandt Jobe hit a lovely, drawing drive on No. 14 yesterday, but it carried into the rough in front of the right fairway bunker. Jobe lined up farther left, bringing an overhanging tree more into play, then hit the same lovely draw. He missed the tree, avoided the bunker and found the fairway. Now he knows, but only after having done it.

That's why, after playing 12 holes before yesterday's lightning delay, Australian pro Aaron Baddeley returned to the course to play the final six as the sun sank and the rain began to chill.

"I've never been here, so I just want to see it," Baddeley said. "A lot of the tee shots here, you can't even see the landing areas or the fairways off the tee.

"Even if I just go back to the hotel and visualize what the shots are off the tee, think about the different clubs I might hit depending on the conditions - that might help."

If Baddeley wants to make it realistic, he'll do his visualization in the shower.

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