More than Merion, the right blend of skill won

MERION didn't win.

Not really.

Intelligence won. Imagination won.

Wisdom and patience, humility and courage proved the difference at the 113th U.S. Open, as they so often do.

Golfers with the sense to hone their long-iron game and pack an extra wedge and aim at the middles - fairways, greens, packs - gave themselves a chance. Golfers who routinely adapt to varied climates and grasses and time zones and backdrops fared best: internationals, amateurs, Mickelsons.

The reputation of the U.S. Open's usual difficulty cost players more than blind tee shots and the white faces of Merion, as her bunkers are known.

"I think psychologically, going out there, it's built up: 'Don't make a mistake,' " Padraig Harrington said on Saturday.

He is ranked only 65th in the world but is a bulldog in major championships, with three wins. He finished tied for 21st at Merion, and he tied for fourth at last year's Open, which remains his best tour finish since 2010.

Harrington plays golf with flair and with confidence, which makes him more capable come U.S. Open time - especially at an unknown entity such as Merion, which, at 6,996 cramped yards, hasn't hosted a PGA event in 32 years.

"Every shot you're hitting, even when you're in position, you've got a lot of fear. It's one thing if you're out of position, but when you're in position, it's just tough," Harrington said. "That's what's going through my head. That must be what's going through other people's heads. Players are hitting shots they wouldn't normally hit, because the U.S. Open makes them afraid of making mistakes."

After Harrington finished Sunday, he declared, "I wish I played the U.S. Open every week . . . I didn't find it that difficult at all."

Matt Kuchar, perhaps the most grooved golfer in the world coming into the tournament, agreed with Harrington's contention: Merion made players uncomfortable enough to coax errant shots. Often, he found himself flummoxed by club choice in relation to wind direction and the firmness and slope of the landing area.

"I never really got comfortable," said Kuchar, who ranked Merion among the world's 10 most demanding courses.

The result of that discomfort: No one finished at par, much less below.

Justin Rose, beautifully adaptable and usually humble, was tied for second in the field in fairways hit and accepted whatever approach shots that remained. Rose won at 1-over.

Hunter Mahan led the field in fairways hit and finished tied for fourth, his best result in a major, and his best result in a stroke-play tournament in 14 months.

They are two of the tougher and smarter players on tour. They committed to their lines and hit shots down them, bogeys be damned.

It was length as much as lines, that, come Sunday, turned this maiden into a witch. The par-3 third, at 274 yards Sunday, played perhaps 15 yards longer with an 8-yard uphill cant and a stiff breeze in the players' faces.

Television cameras caught Mickelson firing a whiny comment at USGA czar Mike Davis about the length of No. 3, which Mickelson double-bogeyed, perhaps costing himself the tournament. He lost by two.

Davis explained that the committee erred on its wind prediction Sunday. What Davis never said, and what no one from Merion expressed, was their shock at how little respect the players showed the course (pretournament practice at Merion was indifferent) and how little the players seemed to learn after the first two rounds.

"After five rounds, we're going to figure any course out," said Masters champion Adam Scott . . . after his clever reckoning netted him 57 percent in fairways hit and tied for 45th on the leaderboard.

Ian Poulter called the 18th the hardest hole in golf after he bogeyed it three times in the first three rounds. An uphill par-4 that played to as much as 530 yards, with out of bounds left, it played 0.685 strokes over par . . . and was the second-hardest hole, after the 504-yard par-4 5th, which sits on the side of a hill.

Players who tried to overpower little Merion exited bloodied, like Dustin Johnson, 17-over and 55th. Players who expected a typical U.S. Open course exited bitter, like Zach Johnson, who called the course "manipulated," because of the fairways' narrowing as they neared the greens.

They narrowed to an evil mixture of cultivated weeds that is Merion's rough, which might be better as pasture than as playing surface.

"It's good for cows," said Ernie Els, twice an Open winner, "not for golfers."

By Sunday evening, Els lost his composure; he couldn't even recall how he had expected Merion to play easy, and he cursed his way off the course.

In fact, Els helped begin the buzz about a possible 63 or a recordbreaking U.S. Open 62. Those scores seem foolish today; but, really, there were 66s and 65s to be had in the wetness Thursday, Friday and into early Saturday. The golfers knew that, even after playing the layout only once or twice.

Rory McIlroy, who destroyed the more generous Congressional layout in his 2011 Open win, said Tuesday he expected Merion to be as vulnerable. McIlroy disavowed those comments when the weekend arrived, his courage diminished.

Tiger thought 60s were likely, too, but he putted himself out of another major. Mickelson expected better scores, as did innovative optimist Paul Casey, who called the track "brilliant."

Kuchar called it "awesome."

Davis, clearly relieved that he'd baffled the best in the world, said the course held up "wonderfully." By Sunday, though, Merion showed her nastiest wiles, with harder fairways and devilish greens and pins. Survival became the watchword.

In the end, golf won. It got 4 riveting days of weather uncertainty; course education; history lesson; and, of course, intrigue: Mickelson and Steve Stricker at 43 and 46, respectively; Tiger vs. Sergio; Sergio vs. poultry.

Rose, an English prodigy only lately come full bloom, outlasted the others who lacked his courage and his intelligence.

And Merion - OK, she won a little.

She needed to dress herself up and cover her flaws and rely on the weakness of strangers, but she used what she had and emerged with her dignity. The players still don't know what hit them.

When it was over, she blew them a kiss, gave them a wink and promised she'd humble the next generation, too.

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