Video: The Mood For Merion, 2nd Hole Flyover

The 556-yard par-5 second features arguably the most Tom Meeksian fairway contour of the Mike Davis era. For those that don't recall, Meeks often used straight lines and disregarded bunkering in a quest to force U.S. Open players to hit uncomfortable shots even if the architecture said otherwise. Or he just forced them to make a carry that no everyone could make.

And sadly, the wonderful par-5 has all the Meeks markings.

Note all of the rough between fairway and leftside bunkers, and also the effort to force players to flirt with the out-of-bounds down the right to navigate what is essentially a pretty easy hole and putting surface in the modern game. But, Davis deemed these measures necessary to keep Merion relevant, I just hope they don't sour players on what is otherwise a beautiful hole.