As part of the Green Section’s championship agronomy team for the 2026 U.S. Amateur, I had the privilege of spending a day at historic Merion Golf Club following the conclusion of stroke play at co-host Philadelphia Country Club, where I was stationed. Merion is a club steeped in tradition, and of all their great traditions, the most famous is probably the wicker baskets they use instead of traditional flags. Merion’s director of grounds Paul B. Latshaw and his maintenance team get a lot of questions about the wickers, so we thought it would be fun to explore their history and share how they are made and maintained.
According to club historian John Capers III, Merion originally had white flags but William Flynn – who would go on to become one of golf’s great architects – introduced the wicker baskets to the club sometime after 1912 when he arrived to assist Hugh Wilson with construction of the East Course. During a tour of the club’s archives, Capers explained to me how Wilson got the idea from courses in the British Isles and how Flynn created a patented design for the wickers at Merion.
Capers also informed me that the current wickers are handmade exclusively for Merion by Anne Bowers, an expert basket weaver based in West Virginia. It takes Bowers an entire day to make just one wicker. When the unfinished baskets arrive at Merion, they are secured to a cone-shaped metal base, painted, and attached to the top of a thick metal flagstick. The size of each finished wicker varies, but they are generally about 12 inches tall and 8 inches wide.
One of the most intriguing facts about the wickers for those interested in course maintenance is the origin of their colors. Keen observers will notice that the front nine wickers are red and the ones on the back nine are orange. Legend has it the color choices are due to longtime father-and-son superintendents Joe and Richie Valentine deciding to use readily available paint from their maintenance shop – namely Toro red for the front nine and Jacobsen orange for the back.
The wickers are treated with reverence at Merion and are brought in every evening to protect them from the elements and keep them from disappearing as souvenirs. They are replaced with traditional flagsticks and flags for late-day golfers to use. Merion’s equipment manager, Robert Smith, fabricated a custom cart referred to as the “wicker wagon” to safely collect, transport, and store them in a secure building at the maintenance facility overnight. Each wicker has its own foam-lined slot in the wagon that is carefully spaced from the others to keep them from banging around in transit.