"This is the longest U.S. Open course we've played."

With that simple pre-tournament observation, three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington might well have cooled the jets of many who were predicting that the U.S. Open's return to legendary Merion after a 32-year absence would result in record-setting low scores.  And Harrington's point was a valid one, for while the pundits focused on five sub-400-yard par 4s, a seemingly week mid-section and a total yardage beneath 7,000, far less attention was paid to a collection of five very demanding par 4s (led by the 504-yard 5th and the 521-yard 18th) and a trio of truly gargantuan par 3s (Tiger Woods referred to the 256-yard 3rd as "a driveable par 4"), all of which combined to make prognostications of a 20-under-par winner look laughable by week's end.  Of course, one reason for such predictions was the torrential rains which softened up the ancient Hugh Wilson-designed layout in the days leading up to the Open, followed by the heavy thunderstorms which caused a pair of delays (the first extending three hours) during Thursday's opening round.  But given that the rough thus morphed from dangerous to truly ferocious, and that while short holes weren't going to play meaningfully shorter, the longer entries became borderline backbreaking, a reasonable argument can be made that the rains actually toughened Merion - a suggestion perhaps born out by Justin Rose's eventual winning aggregate  of one-over-par 281.  In the end, Sunday would begin with eight legitimate contenders for the title, but that numbner decreased rapidly in the early going.  Among the first to back off were 36-hole leader Billy Horschel (with bogeys at the 2nd, 3rd and 5th) and veteran Steve Stricker, who belied his reputation for accuracy by hitting two balls out-of-bounds at the par-5 2nd en route to a card-wrecking triple-bogey eight.  Next it was Luke Donald who, hitting a driver at the par-3 3rd, beaned a walking scorer, shaking him up and leading to a run of five bogeys and a double-bogey as he buried his hopes with an outbound 42.  And then there was Charl Schwartzel, who curled in a short birdie putt at the 1st to tie for the lead, and seemed likely to remain in the battle to the end - before promptly recording six bogeys and a double-bogey from the 3rd to the 10th holes, eventually shooting 78.  The remaining contenders - Rose, Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan and Jason Day - held up better in the early going, with Day in particular looking capable of improving upon his third-place finish at The Masters by carding three birdies in the first 10 holes to climb to even par.  But bogeys at the 11th and 14th dampened his hopes, and when makeable birdie putts at 15 and 16 stayed out, he eventually ran out of holes.  Mahan too hung tough, standing at one over par for the day and tied for the lead through the 14th before a double-bogey at the sneakily difficult 411-yard 15th led ti his playing the four closers in four over par, leaving him in a tie for fourth.  For Mickelson's part, double bogeys at 3 and 5 (both off three putts), combined with a birdie at the 4th, saw him staggered early, and he might well have fared better in the end had several well-struck putts not narrowly missed soon thereafter.  Then, on the verge of falling from contention, he holed a 75-yard wedge shot to eagle the 10th and hurled himself right back into the lead - a position he would soon relinquish after poor wedge shots led to disastrous bogeys at the 13th and 15th.  In the meantime, Rose had ridden birdies at the 4th, 6th and 7th to an outgoing 35, then, after a three-putt bogey at the 11th, moved into the lead with clutch birdies at both the 12th and 13th.  He made a dissapointing bogey at the 14th after a poor blast from the right greenside bunker, then a three-putt bogey at the 16th when a near-perfect approach rolled back to the front of the green.  When Mickelson missed an eight-footer for birdie at the 16th, it came down to the final two holes with Rose nursing a one-stroke lead.  The 32-year-old Englishman responded with two superb long iron shots, lacing a 2 iron to within easy two-putt range at the 17th, then firing a brilliant 4 iron to the back fringe at the brutal 18th, from where he chipped dead with a fairway metal to finish at plus one.  Unable to birdie the 246-yard 17th, Mickelson then needed an even less likely birdie at the last to tie but, after driving in the rough, he was unable to hole a 60-yard desperation chip and thus was, for a record sixth time, a runner-up at the U.S. Open.  For Rose, who went from 17-year-old amateur phenom to struggling young pro, before working his way to becoming one of the game's elite ball-strikers, it was, in his own words "A childhood dream come true."