Okay, so I went to Philly and had some fun

Matt Shaffer is a damned fine superintendent at a damned fine golf course...a little place called Merion in the Philly burb of Ardmore. He'll be hosting the U.S. Open in 2013 and you can be sure he and the membership there are going to make it a Major to remember. A few facts I can share from a largely off-the-record conversation with my old friend Matt...




- The regular annual maintenance budget (for 36 holes and lots of extra stuff) is around $3 million. That's in the top 1/2-percent of all courses. The national average maintenance budget is still around $500,000. Only about 9 percent of facilities have budgets of $1 million or more.










- The new maintenance facility will be very special. Most notably, it will have the first "green roof" of any golf course structure in the nation (to my knowledge). The photo on the right shows crews pouring a 3-inch concrete roof in preparation for putting down a soil bed and planting fescue. Yes, the green roof will have its own irrigation system. Total cost: $4.1 million. Projected completion date: September 1.


- Merion's short -- it'll play less than 7,000 yards for the Open. So, Matt and the USGA will use incredibly difficult bunkers (the famed "White Faces") and ultra-quick greens to defend par and uphold the pride of the membership. You have to see the bunkers up close to believe them. According to Matt, Ernie Els has played there numerous times and said the bunkers were the toughest he'd ever seen...anywhere.







- Yesterday (April 14) when I was there, the famed East course greens and approaches were being DryJected.




















- Check out the new, ground-driven topdressing brushes (below) one of Matt's former assistants invented and started selling recently.























- Matt with our old buddy Joe Liebsch, a former superintendent turned DryJect guy.





Check out Joe's war wound. This is what happens when you're whizzing around a course trying to finish a job and a section of hose gets wrapped around your leg!


- Like a lot of top-end facilities, Matt has a mix of equipment from different manufacturers. Unlike most, he has a fairly small chemical inventory. He uses less fungicide and herbicide than the majority thanks to intense cultural practices, soil amendments and nutrition programs.


- Seven guys who worked for Matt previously are now at Top 100 facilities...not bad.


Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little travelogue from my afternoon at one of the world's greatest courses. Look for more on my Philly trip soon.