
Everyone standing in awe of the crowds, cluster and chaos: It’s only Tuesday (shaking heads)
As I’m sure you’ve heard, keeping it in the fairway is premium for players this week at Merion, especially if they want to be in contention coming down the stretch on Sunday. Precision off the tee is crucial even more so than an average U.S. Open — though even if you look at the stats for recent champs, they ranked poorly in driving accuracy — because the rough isn’t graduated as it has been in the last few years.
So, if you miss the fairway even by an inch, you’re not likely going to reach the green and how far players advance the ball is going to depend on how bad their lie is in the thick, long grass (and if it rains on Thursday as the forecast predicts, then it’s going to be even tougher).