There was no golf professional in Boorowa, western New South Wales, where he grew up.
"Local people learned to play golf by reading magazines and I used to read Gary Player's golf tips in the Daily Mail newspaper each week," he said.
"That's how I learnt to play."
He had a practice round with Gary Player in South Africa last year.
"I told him the story and he remembered doing the articles," Merriman said. "That was a great day for me."
Player and Jack Nicklaus have had the greatest influence on Merriman's career.
"I have followed a lot of Nicklaus fundamentals," he said.
"I've never had a lot of coaching in my career, but I have learnt to play by watching other players like Lee Trevino."
Merriman is a favourite in the Pro-Am events when he breaks into the occasional trick-shot routine.
Early in his career he was playing in tournaments with his golfing mates and would play a few trick shots on the range to break up the boredom of flogging balls.
"A few years down the track I had 20 trick shots and it turned in to a show," Merriman said.
One of the best tricks is to flick the ball over his head on the putting green and in to the hole.
Other tricks include hitting the ball left handed with a right-handed golf club, hitting balls out of balloons and a drop-kick type golf shot.
He has been doing a corporate trick-shot show for 18 years.
"Everyone has seen the usual coaching routine and it gets a bit boring," Merriman said.
"I started adding trick shots to the basics of golf."
Merriman was a club professional and teacher and did not play in many tournaments during most of his career.
"I played a bit on the Australian tour and had two tournaments in New Zealand in the 1980s and early 1990s," he said.
He changed tack in his early fifties and qualified for the European seniors tour in 2006 at the age of 51.
"I was a club professional in Sydney at the time," he said.
"I've always wanted to play in the British Open so the next best thing was the British Open seniors."
Merriman has had success as a senior golfer and won the Australian PGA seniors in 2008.
He followed this up by finishing runner-up in the Australian Open seniors tournament two years running.
Another highlight was to hit a 69 when playing with Greg Norman in the British Open seniors at Troon. Norman shot 67.
"I was very happy with that because I was a little bit nervous beforehand, playing with Norman when I'd been just a club pro all my life," he said.
• The leading professionals after the first of the three rounds of the City of Dunedin Legends Pro-Am are Ken Tarling (Canada) and David Hill (Australia) on 68, Paul Dalgleish (Australia) and Garth Domigan (Wanaka) 69, David Merriman (Australia), Sir Bob Charles (New Zealand), David Good (Australia), Trevor Hollingsworth (Australia), Mark Sandri (Timaru) and Mark Tickle (Australia) 72.
The leading amateur teams are Laurie Mains, Brent McCormack, Colin Tryfiatis (Queenstown) and Eddie Walker, John Pascoe, Clay Morgan (Dunedin) on 123.
The last round by the professionals will be played at Balmacewen tomorrow from 9am to 2.30pm. There is no charge for spectators.
David Merriman
Australian golfer
• Age: 56.
• Hometown: Sydney.
• Occupation: Golf professional and trick shot golfer.
• Golf tours: European seniors 2006-11.
• Highlights: Winning Australian seniors PGA 2006; qualified for European PGA 2006; round of 69 at the British Open seniors at Troon.
