U.S. Open - Gambling With a Merion Course That's Tough but Short ARDMORE, Pa. - After he won the 1971 United States Open at Merion Golf Club, Lee Trevino said, "I love Merion, and I don't even know her last name." The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Murray had a different assessment in the wake of the same championship. "Whatever else she is," he wrote, "Merion ain't no lady." That was when Merion was respected for its architectural originality and the hidden challenges of a shortish layout. But since the club last hosted the United States Open, in 1981, the consensus has been that Merion's pocket-size East Course was a test in its day, but nobody hit the ball 350 yards in the early 1980s (let alone 1904, the first time Merion hosted a national championship). As the 113th United States Open returns to the club Thursday, even after years of prep work and a lengthening of the course, the most asked question remains: Aren't today's powerful, long-hitting pros going to tear up that nice old place? The United States Golf Association is not shying from the question. In a daring experiment rarely attempted in other sports, the U.S.G.A. is symbolically willing to roll back the clock for the historical fun of it and, notably, perhaps to prove a point. On the national stage, Merion, a grand old lady that is still devilishly difficult, will test if the cutting-edge technology of today's equipment has subverted the basic and traditional challenges of the game. If Merion is indeed overrun by the world's greatest golfers, should the winning score be 15 under par, it may later be seen as the tipping point in the movement to inhibit how far the golf ball is allowed to travel. But if Merion grits its teeth and relatively low scores demonstrate that an old-style architectural marvel less than 7,000 yards long is not outdated, then the distance issue may lose some of its relevance, at least in the immediate future. "Coming back to Merion is a truly magical thing and an important thing for golf," said Mike Davis, the U.S.G.A. executive director. This is a special place, and people will see that. I would say that there are probably more players that can potentially win this U.S. Open than in any other U.S. Open venue we go to. Davis insisted that at 6,996 yards, and a par 70, Merion will be anything but easy. And it will be neither a long hitter's paradise nor an advantage for the more precise, finesse player. "The short holes are short, so yes, there will be more birdies made - trust me - at this U.S. Open than any we have seen in recent history," Davis said. But the long holes are also really long. There are no par 5s at Merion after the fourth hole, which means there is no place for the long hitters to steal an easy birdie. The sloping greens will be mowed to a frighteningly fast 13.5 on the Stimpmeter. True to its 19th-century routing, there are blind shots, or semiblind shots, all over the golf course, and Davis called the uphill 521-yard, par-4 18th hole "the toughest finishing hole in all of the U.S. Opens." "And the final five holes will challenge any level of golfer from any era," Davis said. Yet the 13th hole is a measly 115 yards. Four other par 4s are shorter than 367 yards. But with the championship on the line late in the final round, some golfers will have to play the par-3 17th hole from 246 yards - a tee shot over a ravine to a green carved into a sloping hollow. Miss that green, and you're either in the sand or have an impossible downhill lie. "It's really two different golf courses," said Webb Simpson, the defending United States Open champion who played at Merion when it hosted the 2005 United States Amateur. Potentially, through 13 holes, if you drive it well, you can have nine wedge opportunities to the greens. And then the last five holes are going to be some of maybe the hardest that we have ever had in the U.S. Open. So you kind of have the best of both worlds. But it's going to take a good mind to play strategically, even after you make a mistake. And it will force a mistake. What I remember about Merion is that the second that you think you've got an easy hole is the second that you probably will make a mistake. The U.S.G.A."s plans at Merion have been pondered and contemplated for more than five years. It is not the same course as it was in 1981, or even in 2005 when Simpson played it as an amateur. Extra land has been bought by Merion members, and the course has been lengthened by about 400 yards since 1981. Some fairways have been realigned, and a few other tricky or demanding elements have been added to holes. The club has worked tirelessly with its neighbors in the small community enveloping Merion to make the small physical footprint of the place work. But if the weather does not cooperate and there is rain before or during the tournament, Merion's treacherous greens and narrow fairways will be softened and the golf course will be largely defenseless to low scoring. "I would contend that if you saw Merion firm for four straight days versus soft for four straight days, you may see an 18- to 20-shot difference in the winning score," Davis said. But we can't control the weather. The Merion East Course, surrounded by a suburban neighborhood and a college, is wedged into about 110 acres, or about half as many as a usual American championship layout. On the second hole, a public road runs no more than 10 yards from the right edge of the fairway. Expect to see a lot of balls bounding down the macadam, which is out of bounds, and over a retaining fence. There is another street just behind the sixth green. Elsewhere, there are fieldstone, estate-like homes that stand 20 or 25 yards from fairways and greens. They will receive some camera time as well, and they are also out of bounds. But one of the best-known features of Merion, and viewers will hear all about it on the network broadcasts this week, comes near the end of the round: the 430-yard, par-4 16th known as the Quarry Hole. It's not an overly long hole, but a large, scruffy, gorgelike area - a filled-in old quarry - intersects play. Full of overgrown grasses, weeds, shrubs and wildflowers, the chasm is in the middle of the fairway and also obscures the view of a tilted green. The golfers will have to carefully and strategically play in front of the gorge, and then take their best aim at where they think the hole is. With the tournament up in the air, it could be a matter of hit and hope. Does that sound easy? With the lethal 17th to follow and a closing hole that might be the most difficult in Open history, that may be the more appropriate question of the week.