Another U.S. Open in Philadelphia. Ho-hum. This week I went up to Merion and slogged around in the mud. It was fun to see how the championship looked—radically different from the last time they hosted in 1981, that is for sure. And everyone is getting wrong the color of the wicker baskets. They are crimson and tangerine, according to my 1981 program, not red and orange.

It was my fifth U.S. Open in the region this year. I am pretty sure I am the only person who attended all five of them: the U.S. Open for squash singles in October at Drexel; the U.S. Open for squash doubles in December in Wilmington; the U.S. Open for court tennis in January in Philadelphia; and the U.S. Open for racquets in March in Philadelphia.