MERION GOLF CLUB

The wicker baskets perched atop flagsticks serve as both navigation aids and reminders that you're playing one of America's most hallowed championship venues, where Bobby Jones completed the Grand Slam and Ben Hogan made his miraculous comeback. This Main Line masterpiece demands surgical precision over brute force, with Hugh Wilson's routing threading through mature specimen trees and across Cobbs Creek's meandering tributaries. Every approach shot matters on these small, severely contoured greens where three-putts lurk like landmines—but when you walk off 18, you've tested your game against the same challenges that have humbled the world's greatest players.