Divider
Well, this is one way to solve the distance issue in golf.
Merion Golf Club, host to this week’s U.S. Amateur, has one of the coolest setups in the game with practice greens close to the clubhouse and its signature green awnings. Cooler still is the 14th tee of the East Course that is nearby. On the Merion scorecard, the snake-shaped dogleg left tips out at 411 yards, which is, obviously, really short for a par 4 among today’s young bombers. So the USGA took the unusual step of creating a tee box on the putting green. The move lengthened the hole to about 430 yards. Fun idea, though in reality, it just means they’re hitting a different wedge in, right? The hole did play tough in the first two stroke-play rounds, ranking No. 4 in difficulty.