Merion Is To America What St. Andrews Is To Scotland

At least, in the tournament sense though the architectural DNA of so many courses was inspired by Merion.

But since we are fresh from a fantastic U.S. Open, let's stick to Merion's place as the host of 18 USGA championships. I make the case in this Golf World Monday item that this is our St. Andrews and while the setup definitely had its quirks and mistakes, Merion is so good that it overshadowed any quirks. (I elaborate in detail in Golf World this week on some of the setup highs and lows.)

Until that story appears, forgive me if I wax a bit about this special place in golf. My great regret of the week will probably be that I didn't take time to just walk roads surrounding the course, where spectators leaned on fences and cheered players on. And where neighborhoods turned into block parties of folks simply celebrating the return of golf to this special place. Reader Ari, who I met this week after years of online communication, was a witness to this and posted in previous threads about the atmosphere.

Like the camaraderie that envelopes St. Andrews during the Open, otherwise sleepy streets turned into a community that we can only hope becomes a regular occurrence every 8-10 years.