The archives at Merion are a secret place to get lost in golf history

About 40 years ago, an older, fellow Merion Golf Club member asked John Capers III if he’d be interested in a project.

The club had piles of golf-related material strewn about a light-filled room in its pro shop. Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but it can ruin pictures and documents, never mind emphasize clutter. Would Capers — a history major as well as a Division I player — start organizing all that stuff?

Capers got to work, and, eventually, the Ardmore, Pa., club built a dedicated archive, designed by former USGA Museum curator Dr. Andrew Mutch. The room has copious filing cabinets, hanging files for clothing and bookcases for display. Today, the archive contains approximately 1,500 books dating back to the 1860s and about an equal number of collectibles. Conditions here are as perfect for purpose as Merion’s greens: 70 degrees, 50 percent humidity, no natural light.

“The initial goal was to organize a mess,” says Capers, now chair of the club’s Archives Committee. “The current goal is to create a repository of Merion Golf Club’s history dating back to its origins in the late 1800s.”

The archive is available at any time to members, who often bring guests in for a tour. It’s also open to visitors by appointment, which tends to occur around majors at Merion. Six more USGA championships by 2050 are slated for the club, which already owns the record for hosting such events. History continues apace.

Living history: John Capers III, Merion’s Archives Committee chair, has 19 club championship wins between the junior, men’s, senior and super- senior divisions.

The equipment collection includes “Merion” named models and former head pros’ clubs.

Merion-logoed balls from USGA championships, rare PING models and plastic practice balls and floaters.

Some of the archive’s books date back to the 1860s.

A miniature statue of Bobby Jones, who completed his 1930 Grand Slam at the U.S. Am at Merion.

Eight flat files for larger items (right) and 12 standard files (left) hold some of the archive’s 280,000 documents.

Watches, plates, pewter and lots and lots of headcovers.

Among the countless array of trinkets in the Merion archive are tees, pens and USGA contestants’ badges.

The Grand Slam Trophy Cabinet commemorating Jones’ historic feat, with 95 percent scale replicas of the U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, British Amateur and Open Championship trophies.