The Merion Golf Club will host this year’s U.S Open, golf’s second major of the year, starting this Thursday and it’s an event players and fans have looked forward to for quite some time.

Merion Golf Club is a private club located in Haverford Township, Pennsylvania. It has two golf courses the East and West. It will be the on the East course that the world’s top players will battle to be a part of history and immortality.

Even though it has hosted a record 18 USGA championships, the U.S. Open has not been played at Merion since David Graham won in 1981. The 32 years is the fifth-longest time between U.S. Opens for a golf course. It will also be the fifth time the U.S. Open is held here.

This fact means that even though Merion has been around for more than a century, it will feel new to the majority of players in the U.S. Open. Because it has been out of the rotation so long, only 11 players have played competitive rounds on the course.

That includes Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker from the 1989 U.S. Amateur, Kevin Chappell and Morgan Hoffmann from the 2005 U.S. Amateur, and Rickie Fowler from the 2009 Walker Cup. Those were all match-play events.

Another new thing that will certainly distract the players is the wicker baskets on top of the flagsticks rather than flags. This is something that is unique to Merion and will certainly throw off the players, at least initially, because they can't tell the wind direction at the green. Players are used to seeing how the flag is blowing to know this, but at Merion there aren't any flags on top of the flagsticks.

There is one more twist for the players; the scorecard for Merion will be 6,996 yards at par 70, making it the shortest course for any major championship since Shinnecock Hills (also 6,996 yards) in the 2004 U.S. Open. The difference? Merion has five Par 4s that are under 400 yards and only two Par-5s.

It will have only 18 acres of fairway, compared to 33 acres next year at Pinehurst. Merion’s short and has tight fairways. Accuracy off-the-tee will be at a premium and of the utmost importance. A missed fairway can lead to a high score in any hole because the greens are...yes you guessed right...small.

The East Course opened in 1912 and is regarded as one of the finest classical tests in America if not the world. Holes vary from the tiny par-three 13th to the brutal Par-5 fourth, with one driveable Par-4 only a few yards longer than three monster par-threes.

It really should be an all-round test of golf and that's always the aim of a US Open. Par should be a good score and while the length of this course won't defend it, thick, multi-layered rough, narrow targets and typically fast greens will demand precision and patience.

However, if there's one thing that can come to the rescue of players in a US Open it's the weather. More than 5 inches of rain fell on Merion Golf Club since last Friday, making the most popular equipment in Merion a squeegee instead of a golf club. More heavy rain at the U.S. Open flooded a bunker by the 11th green and filled fairways with large puddles and tiny stream.

The course was closed for four hours during the first full day of practice, and then shut down for good later in the afternoon. This recent deluge in Pennsylvania could dramatically change the picture at Merion this weekend.

The Vulcan Spock from Star Trek would agree that logic suggests that sodden fairways will allow the big-hitting stars of modern golf to take apart this traditional layout. While par might win this championship during a dry spell, it certainly won't if the course remains soft. Does Rory McIlroy in 2009 come to mind?

But if the Superintendent and the course crews have their way, this course will be dry by Thursday and players will see Merion’s East Course sharp teeth as they are.

The course features their only two Par-5 holes in the first four holes—second and fourth. It also plays the front nine longer at 36 shots and 3732 yards, than the back nine at 34 shots and 3264 yards. Does this means, players can get a breather down the stretch? No way.

Every hole represents a challenge by itself. Plus there is always an intermediate rough, dunes grass, Scotch broom and the bunkers of old remain with peninsulas, islands of grass and "eyebrows" guarding its small, magnificently-manicured greens.

There are no yardage markers anywhere on the course, so caddies must be sharp with their eye sight and use all of their knowledge obtained through experience. They will be expected to be able to tell players the exact yardage on any shot.

The U.S. Open is a tradition like no other, and Merion Golf Club’s East course unique setting will make this year’s edition one to remember.