Ch
ampionship golf and champion golfers have long been intertwined with the mystique of Merion Golf Club’s East and West Courses. Designed by Hugh Wilson, Merion’s East Course has played host to more USGA Championships than any course in America and is home to some of its greatest moments. From Robert Tyre Jones, Jr.'s completion of golf’s elusive Grand Slam at the 1930 U.S. Amateur to Ben Hogan’s awe-inspiring performance and now legendary one-iron on the 72nd hole during the 1950 U.S. Open, the sculpted greens, fairways and treacherous bunkers of Merion have shaped the game. Most recently the host of the 2022 Curtis Cup, Merion continues to not only challenge the world’s best, but identify them as well.
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A report on the opening of Merion’s East Course on September 14, 1912 said the course was “among experts, considered the finest inland links in the country.”
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With the completion of the West Course in May of 1914, Merion became the first club in the nation to boast two 18-hole championship layouts.
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Olin Dutra’s victory in the 1934 U.S. Open at Merion, despite battling severe sickness, was proclaimed by one reporter, as “courageous a victory as any ever scored on the golf links.”
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Some historians regard Jack Nicklaus’s performance (66-67-68-68-269) in the 1960 World Amateur Team Championship at Merion as one of the most dominant performances in golf. After his dramatic 18-hole playoff victory over Jack Nicklaus in the 1971 U.S. Open, Lee Trevino was quoted, “I love Merion, and I don’t even know her last name.”
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Jack Nicklaus once said, "Acre for acre, [Merion] may be the best test of golf in the world."