US Open     June 2013

Merion Country Club      Ardmore, PA

Road trip from Cape Cod to Merion with my buddy Jim in his BMW X3, stopping on the way in New Haven, CT for pizza at world famous Pepe's, (in business since 1925).  Jim had been behind the wheel up to this point, but being a multi-tasking fiend he had been juggling his ipad, iphone, GPS, playing itunes, dialing up Pandora, and working on several marketing projects for his retail clothing business.  I was a wreck, so I was relieved to take the wheel for the remainder of the trip so he could really get down to business.  Made it to the Residence Inn after 6.5 hours and were immediately upgraded from a studio to a 2 bedroom / 2 bath suite; we were living large.  I have to thank my friend Mark Wetzel for our accommodations as he had originally offered to have us stay in his finished basement but had a bit of a flood the day before we were scheduled to arrive.  He graciously offered to put us up at the Residence Inn using some of his million air miles from all his overseas business traveling.  Mark, you are the best!

Day 1   US Open    June 13, 2013

Anxiously watching the Weather channel which was blowing up about all of the thunderstorms moving into the Philadelphia area.  Luckily we didn't have to be at Merion until 12:30 so we went to the breakfast buffet and ate a massive amount of food, not knowing when we might get our next meal.  A soaking rain passed through our area at 10, we waited it out then left at 10:30 for the designated USGA parking area.  When we arrived we were informed that the entire parking area had been switched at the last minute to a nearby mall, evidently for fear that the original lot located at a beautiful grassed park would be turned in a quagmire.  A hint of conditions we would encounter at Merion for the week.  After catching the 30 minute shuttle ride we finally arrived at the course.  We were both assigned as grandstand marshals at various locations throughout the week.   Jim headed left to the tiny 13th grandstand, tucked in beside the beautiful old clubhouse, while I headed toward the enormous bleachers at the 17th.  This grandstand easily held 3,000 people, with a fantastic view of the entire par 3 "quarry hole".  It also had a terrific view of the famous 18th tee and fairway, where so much history had been made, including the spot from where Ben Hogan made his splendid 1-iron shot to win the 1950 Open. When I arrived onto the grandstand, I checked in with the marshal's captain.  There were over 15 marshals assigned to this one grandstand, but most were just standing around in clusters, making no attempt to regulate crowd movement or noise as players were putting on the green immediately below.  The captain informed me that his relief for the afternoon shift was an hour late, and did I want the job?!  I was astonished that no system was in place, but I declined, having just arrived on site.  This grandstand was divided into 3 sections, one of which was for separate premium tickets holders.  There were 4 entrances to this huge grandstand complex, making it a logistical challenge.  I stayed on the general admission side for today's shift, and eventually things settled into some order for marshaling such a huge crowd.  Two replacement captains volunteered and worked up a plan.   We tried to limit movement on the noisy wood and metal structure to those times after the players exited the green. The 17th is such a difficult hole, 246 yards to carry the overgrown quarry wasteland, landing on a green guarded by 5 bunkers.  I saw only 1 birdie all day.

I took my lunch break at 3:30 over at the giant spectator pavilion behind us, an area which had been turned into a sea of mud, overlaid with straw due to the rain from this morning and earlier in the week.  What a scene watching the patrons pick their way carefully through this mess, high heels were having a tough go of it.  Noticed a large number of women in light summer dresses wearing fashionable calf-high designer rubber boots.  Quite the fashion statement!

At 5pm play was halted due to a weather delay and we made the USGA announcement to vacate the grandstand, with about half of the spectators complying.  I headed over to the volunteer pavilion by way of a quick tour of the back-9, finding the going tough in spots due to the mud churned up by the enormous crowds.  I was forced to walk inside the ropes most of the way just to keep moving as I eventually made my way over to the 13th hole grandstand to meet up with Jim.  By this time the rain was coming down pretty heavily and we were informed by headset to seek the nearest shelter due to a chance of lightning.  Being beside the clubhouse, Jim and I made our way up to the wonderful veranda fronting the entire structure, immediately beside the 1st tee.  This spot had once been described by the well known golf writer Dan Jenkins as the most pleasant place to sit and relax, in all of golf.  So here we were in amongst all the players, caddies, wives, girlfriends, and Merion members, sitting on the low stone wall at the edge of the porch.  Jim was getting a little nervous hoping we wouldn't get kicked out.  I told him we were just following orders to seek the nearest shelter, and to just act like he belonged and no one would bother us.  We were soon offered a drink from a passing waitress but declined as we were technically still on duty.  What an experience!  After a 45 minute weather delay, the horn for resumption of play sounded and I headed back to 17, where only a few marshals returned for the rest of play, which was eventually called on account of darkness.      

Me and Jim at the historic Merion clubhouse enjoying our well earned beers