It is interesting to study the accounts of the September 14, 1912 opening of the new course, the present East Course, of the Merion Cricket Club. While there were numerous accounts in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Ledger and other national newspapers all lauding the outstanding design, there is no discussion whatsoever of the baskets used on the standards that are now so closely tied to the Merion mystique. Few photographs exist of the course in the early days and of the ones available there is no evidence that the familiar baskets were used. Alex Findlay, in his August 23, 1912 article in the Philadelphia Ledger discusses the uniqueness of the new course but does not mention the use of baskets. Robert W. Lesley, in his outstanding December 1914 piece in The American Golfer, goes to great lengths to discuss the East and West Courses and their differences yet makes no mention of the use of baskets on the East Course.
Could it be that the baskets were not used right away on the East Course? A 1912 photograph of the East Course, the earliest close-up photograph of a green (possibly the 13th), shows a typical golf standard of the time with a flag atop a bamboo or cane pole. The exact origin of the wicker baskets atop the standards used at Merion East remains a mystery. It is unlikely the baskets were used during the first few years the East Course was open for play. Newspaper and magazine articles at the time discussed the uniqueness of the course yet failed to mention the extraordinary basket tops we immediately associate with Merion Golf Club today.
A consideration of early accounts of Merion East indicates the use of baskets began in 1916. Historical records reveal that the earliest evidence of “cane and basket hole markers” was in the 1850s where “a resilient bamboo cane was surmounted with a basket top.”
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