Something To Watch: OB On Merion's 15th

A question and answer today in the USGA press conference about Merion's 15th:

Q.  There are no white stakes or white paint on the left side of 15.  There is out of bounds or what's going on there?

    TOM O'TOOLE, JR.:  That boundary on the left of the 14th and 15th holes is marked by the low cut telephone poles that are situated in the ground.  So the inside points at ground level of that circular, symmetrical telephone pole or short telephone pole which Matt Shaffer's staff cut off very proximate to the ground so balls would not be deflected in areas they're likely to be.  That boundary pretty much from the 14th tee to the 15th putting green is marked with those telephone pole, in ground units.  Looking for the right word.

    MIKE DAVIS:  When you look at that, it's part way ‑‑ where the fairway ends and the McAdam for the road is, it's part way into the rough is where the boundary actually is.  So you've got a buffer of a few feet of rough that a ball that's just not going very hard is going to hit the rough and stop.  But a ball that is going is hard will probably go out in the road and that will be out of bounds.

Here is the area in question with the "units" cut down. Certainly one of the strangest boundaries in golf and potentially controversial, though most of the drives I watched heading out-of-bounds were well on their way gone, not just barely trickling out. Marshals reported only seeing one of those.