April 2025 - Memories of Merit

Merit Club in Libertyville was the site of Karrie Webb's U.S. Women's Open triumph in 2000
Photographs courtesy of USGA
This article appeared in the April 2025 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
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World Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb claimed the 2000 U.S. Women's Open at Merit Club.

The first thing one notices about Merit Club is its scale. The dream course brought to life by property owner Bert Getz in 1992 stretches across a valley to a distant hillside. One can almost imagine bagpipers strolling across the landscape at dusk. Getz had a big vision, a big former cattle farm to create it, and the gumption to make it happen.

It’s 25 years now since Merit hosted the U.S. Women’s Open, held as much for the exalted place the late Ed Oldfield (see adjoining obituary) garnered as a premier teacher of LPGA players as for the quality of the course itself. Karrie Webb won the championship, the first of two Women’s Opens in succession and the third of her seven major championships. Webb’s dominant five-stroke victory over Cristie Kerr and Meg Mallon propelled her to Player of the Year honors and qualified her for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

“Everything was perfect,” Merit Club director of golf Don Pieper recalled. “It was seven beautiful days, high 70s, low wind and a good winner in Karrie Webb.”

With a course groomed by master superintendent Oscar Miles, conditions were pristine, and Webb took advantage, finishing at 6-under-par 282, her four trips around the grounds punctuated by an opening 3-under 69 and third-round 4-under 68. That gave her a four-stroke lead over Mallon entering the final round, and even a closing 1-over 73 featuring a watery double-bogey on the seventh hole which helped lead to a momentary tie didn’t hurt, as Mallon scored 74.

Webb embraces Meg Mallon, who tied for second with Cristie Kerr. Webb (-6), Kerr and Mallon (-1) were the only three competitors to finish under par for the event.

“I think it’s scary when Karrie gets in trouble,” Mallon said after the round. “She doesn’t get down. She gets mad and gets even.”

“It was just my belief that my game is good enough that I could turn it around,” Webb said of steadying herself. “I was still leading.”

And would seal the victory with a birdie at the last, as the great ones do.

It was an Open that saw 49-year-old Pat Bradley, who had won the 1981 edition at La Grange Country Club, miss the cut and bid farewell to the USGA stage – until the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club in 2018.

Getz and his family, surrounded by members and friends, including former President George H.W. Bush, from a notable golf family himself – the H.W. is for Herbert Walker, as in Walker Cup – reveled in the excitement.

“He loved how it turned out,” Pieper recalled. “He knew the president from when he and Mrs. Bush were on the board of the Mayo Clinic together.”

Oldfield was then the president of the club and called it “a very successful event for this part of the world,” though wished more fans had attended. At that, some 101,000 turned out over the course of the week, with a big gallery on Sunday following the leaders. It’s likely the crowd would have been even bigger had the date not collided with the British Open at St. Andrews, the second of four-straight men’s majors won by Tiger Woods.

Those who ventured to Libertyville also saw a course designed by Bob Lohmann, Getz, Oldfield and Miles which played to 6,540 yards and then tipped out at 6,960. The length that top players hit the ball has caused changes over the decades.

“We’ve definitely matured,” Pieper said. “We’ve added tees and the trees have grown up. Now we’re about 7,200 yards.”

The club, still controlled by the Getz family and owned by the members, was last in the spotlight in 2016, when it hosted a bevy of LPGA stars for the International Crown. Pieper said if the right opportunity came along, the club would again be amenable to hosting a significant tournament.

Merit Club thrives today with a full membership and, at the ripe age of 33 is about to undergo a bunker renovation, among other improvements.

Tim Cronin has written a dozen books on golf.