Again, Merion rolls out the red carpet for a USGA championship at its iconic East course

Mike Whan is only in his first year as the chief executive officer of the United States Golf Association, but it hasn’t taken him long to become acquainted with the private golf clubs that are willing and able to host the events and championships conducted by the nation’s governing body.

And, as Whan said, of the “couple, maybe less than five, places that belong in the most elite company when the USGA talks about special,” the name of Merion Golf Club is near or at the top of the list.

“There’s only one place on the planet that’s hosted the most USGA championships. That’s here,” Whan said at a media day last month for the Curtis Cup, which begins Friday at the historic Ardmore layout. “There’s only one place that has 18 and is about to have their 19th USGA championship. That’s Merion.”

The 19 championships are the most conducted at any venue. It is quite the mix — five U.S. Opens, with the most recent being in 2013, six U.S. Amateurs, four U.S. Women’s Amateurs, one U.S. Girls Junior, and one Walker Cup. This week’s Curtis Cup is the second time Merion will host the biennial competition between teams from the United States and Great Britain and Ireland.

And the events will continue. The USGA last August named Merion to join Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh and Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort as anchor sites regarded as iconic venues owning a deep history plus a long-term relationship with the association. The connection between Merion and the USGA goes back to 1904, before the famed East course was even built.

“From the beginning, this is what Merion was all about, participating in and hosting championships,” Merion president John Castleman said last week. “The club has continued that tradition the last 100-plus years. When the USGA says, ‘Would you like to host this one?’ or ‘We’d really like you to do this one,’ it’s always yes because we really feel like we’re an important part of the history of the game.”

In conjunction with being named as an anchor site, Merion was awarded the U.S Open in 2030, marking the 100th anniversary of Bobby Jones’ historic grand slam. Other major championships coming its way include the 2026 U.S. Amateur, the 2034 and 2046 U.S. Women’s Open, and the 2050 U.S. Open. The USGA also mentioned “additional championships to be named in the future” in its announcements.

So what is it about Merion and staging USGA championships at its iconic East course? What drives one of the area’s most exclusive private clubs to roll out the red carpet for the nation’s most prestigious events?

Buddy Marucci, a former U.S. Senior Amateur champion and two-time Walker Cup captain who has spent more than 25 years as chairman of Merion’s championship committee, said the club’s original charter spelled out the plan for it to be a host for championships, that doing so “is part of the DNA of the club.”

“Our members embrace it and thrive on it,” he said. “They want to participate. They want to work them. We have a great relationship with the USGA staff because our members really get involved. That doesn’t happen everywhere. It’s not exclusive to Merion. But we certainly raise the bar pretty high. I’m confident [the USGA] would tell you that.

“From the Merion standpoint, it’s kind of who we are and what we do, which is kind of trite to say, but It describes it pretty well.”

Marucci helped bring the U.S. Open to Merion in 2013 after an absence of 32 years, along with club officials and David Fay and Mike Davis of the USGA. Plans were made to utilize Merion’s West course as a practice facility and headquarters for players and their families, and hospitality tents went up at Haverford College and on front yards along Golf House Road.

The 2005 U.S. Amateur and the 2009 Walker Cup (with a U.S. team captained by Marucci) were a test of how the cozy course would stand up to the longer hitters and better equipment. Justin Rose’s winning score at the 2013 Open came in at 1-over-par 281, which some observers believed was a function of the USGA tightening the screws on course setup to prevent the final total from being under par.

Marucci, however, insists that’s not the case.

“Do I think that plus-1 or over par will always win at Merion? I don’t think we really care,” he said. “I think we want the best champion to win. We’ve had great champions. I think that as long as we are able to produce a great championship and a great champion, if they were to shoot 10- or 12-under par, I don’t think that would be a problem. I don’t think we look at it that way.”

Marucci also said he doesn’t worry about advances in technology that threaten to overpower a course that, at its longest, plays at just over 7,100 yards from the very back tees.

“The nuance to Merion is that every shot requires thought,” he said. “There are no letups in concentration. The green complexes will always be challenging. I’m not concerned about the ball going 300 yards or 320 yards as opposed to 275 as it did at one point in time. That doesn’t bother me. Merion’s a course of angles, and there will still be demands to hit the shots properly.”

The East course underwent an extensive two-year restoration that ended in the summer of 2019, a project headed by noted Malvern architect Gil Hanse. The project concerned mostly infrastructure — restoring bunker complexes, a sub-air system to reduce moisture on greens and fairways, and a state-of-the-art irrigation system that can pinpoint areas under stress.

“We knew we had one of the finest golf courses in the world and we really felt like we should have the conditioning to match that,” Castleman said. “We knew we had to redo the bunkers because you have to do that periodically, but the fairways and the greens just weren’t in a condition, from a firmness perspective, that this golf course should have. So that really is what drove the decision, and we knew that obviously championships would benefit from it.”

Castleman said a few holes were tweaked, including raising the green 16-18 inches at the picturesque 11th hole, which had been prone to flooding from nearby Cobbs Creek, especially in the week leading up to the 2013 Open.

Castleman and Marucci are looking forward to watching the best women amateurs in the world tackle Merion in this week’s international competition. The Curtis Cup will be the first of four championships in a four-year cycle at the course — the 2026 U.S. Amateur, the 2030 U.S. Open and the 2034 U.S. Women’s Open — and Marucci said he will keep “pushing the envelope for maybe a couple more.”

It’s a relationship with the USGA that’s 118 years old and still strong.

“The club is very proud to have been participating in the history of golf, and I think that’s what it’s all about,” Castleman said. “The USGA has been wonderful to work with. They’re always asking, ‘What would be good for Merion?’ So it’s not difficult for us to open the club to host an event. It’s just a wonderful experience for the club.”