Look forward to a Merion Q&A if you are willing!

Yep ask away guys. I'm back from the course watching on tv. Thanks for the support this week

Well done this week Mr Weaver!

What were your general impressions of Merion?

Do you think it was a fair test?

What would we be most surprised by that we wouldn't be able to pick up on TV?

Hardest course you've ever played, and what else is in the running?

Congrats on making the cut ! ... and on making 10 birds in a U.S. Open !

Obv q: How tough was the course - all time toughest you've ever played ?

How much tougher than the U.S. Am?

Where did you lose strokes ? (missing fw's .. grs?)

Did you have your "A/B/C" game ?

Great job.

Players were audibly complaining about the pins being unfair/on ridges on Friday, and about the 274yd par 3 being ridiculous today. Thoughts?

Comparison between this and Augusta in terms of being a test of your game?

Would you describe the US Open as a fair test of golf?

Best advice you heard from fellow competitor prior to or during tournament?

Story from 'cut watching' knowing it would be somewhat close…

Best/Worst shot of the tournament?

Compare the time schedule between the USO and The Masters. Did you feel more "rushed" (not the right word maybe) being shuttled around the USO? More pampared at the Masters? I guess how big of a difference did the other ~60 runners make? Were the AM's bettor received at either place or treated equally well?

Great effort man, 64th as an Am is nice, beat a lot of quality players. Hope you had a fun time.

Where did you stay during the week?

Was the 3rd today over the top or did you think it was a proper hole for a tournament setting?

Anything specific you learned about playing on a US Open setup that you can apply to the next time?

Congrats on the showing this week!!!

Specific to one hole, was #5 as ridiculous and borderline unfair as it appeared? I was there on Wednesday and we sat watching about 5 groups come through. It was entertaining viewing (were I there for a competition round I'd have sat there all day) but I can imagine it being one of the most frustrating holes you could ever play (though it looks like you handled it like a champ getting through with only one bogey). Thoughts?

congrats on a great week!

Could you talk about the mental effects of playing that tough a set up? Does having to be completely on for 72 holes to avoid big numbers wear on you in a way that a setup that gives you an occasional break doesn't?

If that is a huge factor, do you think that it's something that you, as a player, could grow in? How?

what was your strategy going in? where did you play it safe? where did you get aggressive? did the strategy change for the weekend?

congrats. what a year it must have been. hope we can rail you here for years to come.

I thought it would be a fun course to play when not setup for a US Open. I liked the contrast of very short and very long holes, that in my opinion is better than a bunch of 460-490 par 4s for 4-6 holes straight. I think the course was completely fair. The greens were not that firm compared to what I expected, mainly due to the rain. Most surprising thing I would say is that you can only see your ball land on 7 of 14 holes off the tee. Sight lines are extremely important which they emphasized, but its not on just a few holes, but at least half of them.

Definitely the toughest I have played. In college I have seen rough close to what we saw this week twice, but the fairways were probably twice as wide. And I have played courses with fairways of similar width in college, but with far less rough. As far as green firmness and speed it was not mind blowing...if anything slower and softer than I expected, partly due to the weather. It played much different than Cherry Hills, that course played firm and fast. The greens were much firmer there throughout the week and just as fast. The rough around the greens mihgt have been close to similar length but off the fairways it was much more playable in most parts.
I lost strokes around the greens (chipping/bunkers). I felt that I hit it OK throughout the week and at times that cost me, but the weakest part of my game this week would be short game I would say.
As far as ranking, hard to summarize all the parts together, but I would say driving B-, irons B, wedges B-, putting A-, shortgame C. I didn't play the Par 5s well (mainly 4) and that was due to poor driving or poor layup shots, sometimes both that didn't put me in good position to have good birdie chances. I also didn't play the middle stretch of the course that great (7-13) as a whole.

Friday was hard cause the wind blew, I never thought anything was unfair, just some were crazy hard pins, like on 5 today...there was a very small area to stop the ball if you were putting or if you were chipping from short where most balls collected to keep it from rolling off the front left corner. I saw quite a few guys hit driver on 3 today which I don't think should happen on a par 3, when 7 holes later I would be hitting less club into a par 4.
Yes its fair. I can't think of specific advice, more of what I learned came from watching the guys I played with how they played a course where you needed to control your spin/distance well into soft conditions.
Best shot: 2nd round, hole 17. Hit 5 iron from 206 to 4 feet to the front right pin.
Worst shot: 1st round, holed 17. Hit 4 iron into the grandstands a la Rickie Fowler today...fortunately they were empty.

The logistics weren't really an issue, it worked that way all week so I got used to warming up then hoping into the van to go play. You are definitely more pampered at the Masters, partly because of the number of players but also the mindset I perceive both tournaments to have. US Open is a great experience and they took great care of us, but Masters just rolls out the red carpet and will do anything you need to make sure you have an unforgettable experience. Amateurs were better received at the Masters mainly because members are much more involved at Augusta and they really appreciate the history of amateurs at Augusta and recognize amateur participation as a significant part of the tournament.

I stayed at one of the tournament hotels. Most players seemed to be doing this. There were very few homes available for rent around the course because the USGA went in and rented out lots of the homes for merchandise, hospitality and corporate areas in the surrounding area.
Hole 3 was just really long, we played it like that in the practice round so it wasnt a surprise, and today was not a really difficult pin, you were just hitting to a narrow target from an effective yardage of 271. As far as playing the course, I know what to expect as far as difficulty, but course setup varies every year with the venue.

There just werent many hole locations even possible given the speed of the greens and the severe slope. You just had to hit good shots and sometimes that may not even be enough cause the margin for error was pretty small with such a severe green.

It puts more pressure on your game on every shot, especially off the tee. You know that if you miss the fairway then par will always be a good score and it could be very difficult to make par cause you could end up having no chance of reaching the GIR. Playing easier courses is definitely less demanding mentally because you have some leeway usually off the tee or around the greens where you know that you don't have to be extremely precise or pay the price.

my strategy was just to play smart and avoid big numbers, which I would say I did an OK job of. Basically when the rough is this penal you just want to make sure you don't hit two shots in a row from the rough.
As far as being aggressive, with the soft greens I was most aggressive when pins were up front because I was able to spin the ball back to the pins, conversely to back pins I was a little more conservative because trying to get close could bring in misses long which usually was the worst spot. The greens were receptive enough that if you had a good number/pin then you could be aggressive.
I didn't change the way I played over the weekend.

how hard was controlling the ball out of the rough? I saw a lot of shots that the guys struggled with but were still going to the green between 150-180 and not just chunking out 60-100 yards. Is that how you would describe playing out of that rough? Thick but fair and playable?

Toughest hole? Easiest hole apart from 13?
So did this week tell you anything about your game? You must have a lot of confidence about your game and prospects making the cut at the US open. That is an amazing achievement. I bet your family is uber happy for you.

A few questions:

-I'm a 5.3 handicap, just shot a 78 today on a 74.7/143. What would I have shot today at Merion, in your opinion?

-On TV at least, I was okay with the driver par 4. That green was pretty huge looking and driver receptive if you hit a good one. You could hear Mahan audibly say "hit a f*cking driver on a par 3"....but then I didn't hear any complaints on the sand wedge par 3 or the 3 wood par 4. Agree with that? Also, don't understand how pros constantly hit "4 iron from 246" and then from 270 they have to hit driver.

-Johnny Miller question: How nervous do you get? It seems like going from college/am golf to the Masters/US Open would have to have an effect?

-Now that you've made the cut at a major, what's next on the agenda? Club Championship? Member/Member best ball? You should turn pro. Seems like a totally wise decision.

Oh by the way, Tiger only beat you by one today.

Congrats dude, making the cut at the freakin' US Open is ridiculous.

Similar to the above, what do you think the 5-10 handicap would shoot on Sunday? I know in the past I've seen on NBC celebs/randoms try to break 100. Possible here?

Also, I might have missed it but plans for the future? Do you have exemptions? Plans on playing the next tourney?

Great work stads. I'm sure my wife got pretty tired of hearing me point out your name or face anytime you made it on TV coverage.

A few questions:

- How much impact did having the wicker baskets, in lieu of flags, have on the ability to gauge wind / direction when hitting approaches?

- Had Merion not had the rain leading up to the event, what do you think the winning score would have been?

- Any fun stories or encounters with pros that we might like to hear and you'd be willing to share?

- If you were the Tournament Director and could change one thing about how it was setup - what would it be and why?

- Best perk as a participant in the event?

I think this is a tough q. it depends on your game. but my guess would be I would bet you around 87 if you played your B+ game and are used to fast greens. I think the slope/speed of the greens coudl be the biggest challenge Also i guarantee someone will say 95+.

great job stads. I know there was no crows nest so hopefully you got to do boom boom in the players hotel.

Stads will say 95+. Because that's the right answer.

A 5.3's average score is 80+ to start on their home course (assuming a rating of 72.0+). No way they break 100 at a US Open venue, especially in a one shot type setting.

I guess...i have only played 1 us open course (granted lots of times) and a few british open courses but playing torrey pines at 7six50, as about a 3 to 4 hcap, i played that course much better than a lot of courses 1000 to 1200 yards shorter. now granted the rough was not bad and the greens were not bad but a 75 was not uncommon and breaking 80 was pretty easy and i was playing number six as a par 5 not a par 4 (plays about 45 yards shorter as a par 4 but it is because i am not quite certain where exactly the tee was (US open site said it was 515 par 4) and the diff angles mean alot on that hole).

If you say, 'i want to break 90 and am not worried with making birdies etc" and he goes out there and plays WELL (B+ game) and has practiced for a few hours with greens and chipping and isn't trying to pull hero shots out of his butt all day and on holes like 15 hits in the right rough, wedges out, knocks it on to 30 feet to two putt so he doesn't make a GD 10 like headcase garcia i think he could do it.

yeah if he goes out and plays like a dog i don't doubt he could baloon up to 100+.

I played Torrey Pines South from as far back as they would let us play a few years ago when I was probably an 8 or a 9. Rough was pitchout thick and I shot an 83. I also didn't get to play #14 (or whatever the 470 yard par 4 is) from the women's tees like they did in '08.

I'm not sure what the right answer is. I do play harder courses about the same as easy ones (within reason) for some reason. I used to shoot 81 at the local muni and one of our golf coaches used to say "if you shoot that at the muni, what are you going to shoot at hard nice country club? hmmmmm" and then I would say "about the same or 1 or 2 better", and that usually is what happened.

It seems to me like Merion has enough easy/short holes that I could hang in there. 5,6,17,18 I would try and play like par 5s/4s, that's for sure. Par 3s I would likely lay up on purpose. Surprised some of the pros didn't do that.