At Merion, host of the 2026 U.S. Amateur, there's always magic in the air

Merion Golf Club, hosting the 126th U.S. Amateur this week, is once again enveloped in the special aura that always accompanies this legendary venue. For many connected to golf, this place is synonymous with magic and the game's deep history.

Mark Fulcher, Justin Rose's caddie during his triumphant 2013 U.S. Open victory at Merion, is experiencing a serious case of 'caddie envy' these days. Like any true golf enthusiast, Fulcher, known throughout the golf world as 'Fooch,' knows that match play is the most primal and purest form of the game. This is hardly surprising, given his participation in seven Ryder Cups, seven Solheim Cups, and one Presidents Cup – all contested in a match play format. The U.S. Amateur, much like its British counterpart, is a match play event (following a two-day stroke play qualifying round).

Merion's history is deeply intertwined with golf's greatest moments. In 1930, at the U.S. Amateur held here, Bobby Jones completed his 'Grand Slam' (a bridge term), securing victory with an 8-and-7 win in the 36-hole final over Eugene V. Homans. In match play, each hole is its own contest. Jones held an eight-hole lead with seven holes remaining, signifying an early end to the match. Jones and his caddie, a local teenager named Howard Rexford, joyfully made their way from the 11th green back to the club's iconic white farmhouse clubhouse. There were no golf carts back then.

"Could I hit driver or 3-wood on one?" Fulcher asked, repeating a question posed to him and pausing in a typically English manner. Merion's first hole is… well, what's beyond iconic? It's a delicate par-4 requiring precision, with a ladies' lunch porch located a short distance away. Beyond that, the hole is a slight uphill dogleg that, in stroke play at the U.S. Open, is typically played with an iron off the tee and a wedge into the green – four days straight. But match play is a different beast.

"The first question you'd have to ask is, 'Why?'" Fulcher said on Monday afternoon. Why hit driver? He was in Memphis, enduring the heat, preparing for FedEx Cup I, with Justin Rose due in that night. The answer might be 'making a statement,' if that phrase resonates with you. It does with Fulcher. Match play is full of emotion, and hitting driver on the first hole as an opening statement carries immense emotional weight.

"Then you'd have to ask, 'Where's the pin?'" Fulcher continued. The heavy metal flagstick with a red wicker basket above it. (Merion doesn't have waving flags, so wind over the greens must be gauged differently.) If the pin is cut, say, back left? Yes, you might consider hitting driver or even 3-wood off the first tee. If your opening shot lands in the front-right bunker, that would be perfectly acceptable, even good. But, according to Fulcher, the more prudent and expected play is an iron onto the fairway, a wedge to the green, and an attempt at a birdie putt, leaving yourself an easy par if you miss. Merion's greens are heavily sloped. You can three-putt from anywhere.

Based on this, Fulcher's No. 1 pre-round advice for any of the 64 players advancing to the match play portion of the 126th U.S. Amateur at Merion: use the practice green – the large one to the right of the first tee – and putt a lot of 20- and 30-footers to get a feel for that day's speed and slope. You'll definitely need it.

And then, following Fulcher's advice, savor the moment: "You're likely to be nervous on the first tee, with the ladies and USGA officials on the porch, all that murmuring that goes dead silent as you get over your ball." "Enjoy the moment," advises Fulcher. "What would you give later in life to have that feeling again?" The feeling of being on the first tee at Merion Golf Club, the club where Jones won the Amateur in 1930 and Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open in 1950, and playing in a USGA competition.

Fulcher and Rose, in a sense, had a similar conversation at a recent USGA event, the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in June. Justin Rose is 46, Mark Fulcher is 61. Both have been in golf for a long time. Rose, like Tom Kite before him, has had many heartbreaking second and third places, and top-5s in majors, but he does have that one U.S. Open win.

"In the third round, we were three over through four holes, and things got quiet. There was a moment of, 'What are we doing here?' And we said, 'There will come a time in our lives when we wish we could be three over through four in the third round of a U.S. Open.'" There was a mental adjustment: frustration gave way to privilege and joy – the privilege and joy of being where you are. The third-round 73 was decent, better than 74, 75, or 76. A Sunday 68 led to a hard-fought T-11 finish. Not a top-10, but better than T-12.

That's the spirit. It truly is. You can see the gratitude gene in all this. If you've followed Rose for a while, with Mark Fulcher often by his side, you know he possesses the gratitude gene, along with other qualities – a kind of golfing OCD – that have allowed him to lead an incredible golf career. Adam Scott's approach is very similar. (Phil Mickelson was on another level of artistic flair and golfing gifts.) One of the most quietly impressive sights in professional golf this year was seeing Justin Rose late on Monday afternoon at Royal Birkdale, the week of The Open Championship, grinding over 5-footers on the practice green, as if he had never made one in his life. He's made a million, but there's always the next one.

Fred Couples wasn't built for such sessions – neither physically nor mentally – but in golf, everyone finds their own path. Or her own. The U.S. Women's Open is coming to Merion in 2034.

Fulcher was on campus for the Curtis Cup in 2022 at Merion. Merion, Merion, Merion. After winning the U.S. Open in 1971 in a playoff against Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino said, "I fell in love with a girl named Merion, and I don't even know her last name." When Justin Rose was playing a practice round at Merion before the 2013 U.S. Open, his putting coach, David Orr, told Rose, "Imagine Ben Hogan right here, in that flat cap, smoking a cigarette, away from the crowds, just thinking about his next shot – how magical is that?" This wasn't on the 18th, where Hogan played a second shot immortalized by the Hy Peskin photograph capturing its finish. It was while walking through the quarry on the 16th, in that no man's land between the fairway and the green.

So many gods at Merion. Hogan, Jones, Trevino. Rose is a member of the club. Mickelson almost won there. 'Almost' is part of what makes golf the game it is. The runner-up at this week's U.S. Amateur receives an invitation to play in next year's Masters in April, provided they remain an amateur. It's a good bet that player will stay amateur, at least through the Masters. Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National, is the last winner of the U.S. Amateur who never turned pro. He won in 1975.

Weeks after the 2013 U.S. Open, a package arrived at Fulcher's home, large enough for an upright piano. It was a Merion flagstick, with its heavy metal red-and-white shaft and red wicker basket. In his mind, Fulcher imagines it was the one he removed from the hole when Rose holed out on 18 on Father's Day in 2013, but he knows it's not. (The two wicker baskets have different shades of red, he noted.) This week, a U.S. Amateur winner and their caddie will leave with special prizes not listed in the brochure. Whatever they are, they will last.

When the 1930 U.S. Amateur concluded, six Marines surrounded Bobby Jones and escorted him to the clubhouse. Reporters swarmed 19-year-old Howard Rexford, peppering the caddie with questions. Nearly 60 years later, Rexford had a cut-glass fruit bowl in his living room not far from Merion, filled with bills. The bowl itself was a wedding gift from Jones and his wife to Rexford and his. Jones discreetly paid Rexford $150 for his services in 1930 – about $2,700 today, adjusted for inflation. In the Depression? A fortune. The money came and went. The wedding gift fruit bowl did not. Neither did the memories of an 8-and-7 victory, and the brush with a truly great golfer on a truly great course. Mark "Fooch" Fulcher knows how this all goes. Justin Rose does too. A player and his caddie will get a taste of it this week. What they won't know, what they can't know, is that it's just the beginning. Merion and this championship will follow them around forever.