Merion "Doomsday Scenario" In Play Due To Andrea?

The remnants of the Tropical Storm Andrea are expected to hit Merion Golf Club late tonight through Friday, with predictions of as much as 3 inches of rain. The CNN story with storm paths can be viewed here.

The Flash Flood Watch advisory is here.

This unfortunately brings into play the "doomsday scenario" that Ron Whitten wrote about for the June Golf Digest. In that scenario, Mike Davis has asked for two holes to be prepared to be used on the West Course if there is flooding damage to the 11th and 12th holes on the East Course.

"It's been flooded probably 40 times in the 12 years I've been here," says Matt Shaffer, Merion's director of golf-course operations. "I've pulled logs and tree trunks off that green. It's had so much silt and grit left on it, the subsurface has turned to concrete. I mean, the players in the U.S. Open better pray it floods a little--otherwise, they won't be able to leave a ball mark."

Joking aside, the specter of the green at the 11th and parts of the 12th hole sitting under two feet of water--or worse, washed away in a flash flood--has caused USGA executive director Mike Davis to prescribe an extraordinary measure: He has Shaffer prepping holes on Merion's West Course to be used as emergency replacements.

"We know the 11th hole floods," Davis says. "Hardly goes a year where the stream isn't up and over the green at some point. Apparently they've done some work downstream that causes backups. So, historically, it floods and it drains. Having said that, you have to ask, 'What if all hell breaks loose? What if it stays flooded for two days?' That's why we're going to take some precautionary measures on the West Course."

If you're feeling for the people who take care of the place, check out Joe Juliano's story on the volunteer crew of 130 that will join Merion's 45 staffers to get the course dried out and ready for the Open, including a big outpouring of help from superintendent Matt Shaffer's alma mater, Penn State.

GCSAATV profiled Shaffer and you can watch it here (I would have embedded it, but it plays automatically upon opening this page.)