Merion Golf Club East ☆ Follow

Merion Golf Club is located in Haverford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a township bordering Philadelphia to the northwest along the historic Main Line. The East Course was designed by Hugh Wilson and has played host to more USGA Championships than any course in America. The 18-hole East course features 6,599 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 70, with a course rating of 72.9 and a slope rating of 144. Wilson's layout covers only 126 acres of land, a very small area for a golf course.

The course is considered the best course on the tightest acreage in America, with twisting fairways edged by creeks, rough and out-of-bounds stakes, and canted greens edged by bunkers. Several features of Merion East are derived from famous British courses, including Merion's distinctive Scottish-style bunkers, which are known as the "white faces of Merion." A unique characteristic is that all pins are topped with wicker baskets instead of flags, and at 7 feet 6 inches including the baskets, they are 6 inches taller than standard flagsticks.

The course is home to historic moments including Robert Tyre Jones Jr.'s completion of golf's Grand Slam at the 1930 U.S. Amateur and Ben Hogan's legendary one-iron on the 72nd hole during the 1950 U.S. Open. The East Course has been consistently rated in the top 10 by Golf Digest in the annual "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses" and has hosted five U.S. Opens, most recently in 2013. The course most recently hosted the 2022 Curtis Cup.