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ARDMORE, Pa. — It is a small ballpark, but do not expect a barrage of home runs.
Big hitters beware: Merion Golf Club, which will host the 113th U.S. Open this week, will fool you or make a fool of you if you think you’re going overpower her.
Merion, which has hosted a record 18 USGA championships, will prove to be two things as the season’s second major championship unfolds a short drive west of downtown Philadelphia: It will be the hardest short course in U.S. Open history, and it will provide more players with a chance to win than any in recent memory.
That should make it as open an Open as we’ve had in years, because the big hitters, whose games the major championships favor so much now, will not be able to bomb their way around the course.
“There are probably more players that can potentially win this U.S. Open than in any other U.S. Open venue we go to,” USGA executive director Mike Davis said. “This Open might set a record for most birdies in U.S. Open history, but it might set a record for most double bogeys, too.’’
At Merion, the first venue of fewer than 7,000 yards to host a major championship in nine years, it will be a surprise if most players use more than six or eight drivers off tees. Many will hit fewer.
Look for the likes of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson to navigate their respective way around the course with irons and fairway woods off tees.
“You have to be so disciplined to play that course,’’ Woods said. “You play to certain spots on the greens. You leave yourself certain putts and you deal with it and you move on.’’
Stretched out to its limit, Merion will play 6,996 yards — and the USGA likely won’t have it set that long for more than a day or two. Olympic Club, the site of last year’s U.S. Open, is on nearly 200 acres. Merion stands on about 110. Though the U.S. Open usually accommodates about 40,000 spectators per day, that number has been capped at 25,000 at Merion.
The fascinating uniqueness of Merion is the way its 18 holes are set up. — the course strategically can be broken down in six-hole segments.
The first six holes are meaty, with two par-5s and one of the toughest par-3s on the course. The next six are where players will expect to make their moves by making birdies because there are four par-4s of 367 yards or less. The final six holes provide some of the most difficult challenges on the course, particularly the final three to finish.
There are just two par-5s on the track, and they both come in the first four holes (Nos. 2 and 4). Three of the four par-3s look more like short par-4s (256, 236 and 246 yards), with the only short one the tricky 115-yard 13th hole.
There are two par-4s that play more than 500 yards and five par-4s that play fewer than 400 yards — such as the tantalizing 303-yard 10th hole, which is drivable with 3-wood for a lot of players should they choose to take the risk for the reward.
“What I remember about Merion is the second that you think, ‘I got an easy hole, an iron and a wedge,’ is the second that you probably will make a mistake,’ ” said Webb Simpson, the defending U.S. Open champion who played in the 2009 Walker Cup at Merion.
“You’ve got to make pars on the tough holes, and you’ve got to make birdies on the easy holes,” Mickelson said.
“Merion will do very well for the U.S. Open,” Woods said. “It’s going to have some holes that [players] are going to abuse the golf course with, but they’re also going to have some holes on the golf course that are going to abuse them.
“It’s not one of the golf courses that are in the middle road. It’s either tough or they’ll birdie the hole. Merion is a great golf course.’’
There are two plaques at Merion that commemorate signature moments 20 years apart.
One is on the 11th hole, where Bobby Jones, winning the 1930 U.S. Amateur, completed what became known as the “Grand Slam,’’ sweeping the major championships that year — when the U.S. Amateur was considered a major.
The other is in the 18th fairway, where Ben Hogan famously hit 1-iron — captured in that iconic Hy Peskin photograph of his follow-through — into the final hole to set up a playoff he won in 1950 to complete his comeback from a near-fatal car accident.
Surely, more history awaits this week on the venerable old lady named Merion.
mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com