UL International Crown is public's ticket to Gurnee's Merit Club
Michael Jordan and Brian Urlacher are among the members of an ultraprivate Lake County country club who have given up their 325 acres of golf paradise this week so thousands of people can attend an international women's tournament.
What spectators, Ladies Professional Golf Association officials and competitors in the UL International Crown will find when the gates swing open at the Merit Club in Gurnee is a large, prestigious course kept in such immaculate condition that it is hosting top professionals with only eight months notice and no need for major upgrades. There's been no reconstruction of greens, fairway layouts or tee boxes, nothing to disrupt the deer, bluebirds and other wildlife that keep the course one with nature.
"The women of the LPGA Tour will play our golf course in Merit Club standard conditions," said general manager and golf director Donald Pieper.
It's been 16 years since the public has been allowed to roam the Merit Club's manicured grounds for a golf tournament. Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, were among the fans in the gallery when the U.S. Women's Open came here in 2000.
Merit Club reopens to the public for the UL International Crown, which runs from Tuesday through Sunday, and features top players from eight countries competing in a team format. Practice rounds and other preliminary events are set for Tuesday and Wednesday, and tournament play begins Thursday.
Two years after the inaugural UL International Crown, the tournament arrives at the Merit Club by way of a bit of happenstance, thanks to a snit in the professional golf community.
Merit Club agreed to host the UL International Crown in November after an unspecified disagreement between the LPGA and the owner of Rich Harvest Farms ended plans for the biennial tournament to be played in Sugar Grove.
That meant is there would be relatively little time to prepare the course for play by international pros.
Venues typically are selected two or three years in advance, which was the case last August when Kemper Lakes Golf Club in Kildeer received the 2018 KPMG Women's PGA Golf Championship. It could take several months of work if a course needs refinement to meet professional major-event standards, as well as finding parking and room for bleachers and tents at the venue, said Drew Blass, the UL International Crown's tournament director.
However, the Gurnee course was deemed ready for professional golfers without the need for changes a few months after the prestigious tournament was announced. Blass reported the news to LPGA executives in Daytona Beach, Florida, when he visited the Merit Club this spring.
"I said this golf course is kept at such a championship level that our agronomists and rules officials were thrilled that they really didn't have to do anything," he said.
There also is ample space to address infrastructure needs, and plenty of parking is readily available at nearby College of Lake County in Grayslake, where a shuttle service will take spectators to the golf course.
What helps distinguish Merit Club is its 325-acre site, which is about double the size of a typical 18-hole layout, Pieper said. That allows more room for nature to meet golf.
"We've got some blue herons from time to time," Pieper said during a recent tour of the course. "You see the coyotes, a lot of deer. Some unbelievable fish and a couple really big turtles that come in from time to time. It's pretty good."
Bert Getz opened the Merit Club in 1992 and obtained a special conservation status ensuring it will remain open space. Getz had Black Angus cows on the land for 35 years before the club was launched southwest of Milwaukee Avenue and Route 120.
Most homes at The Reserve at Merit Club can top $1 million, but they are a few hundred yards from the golf course. Construction on the first houses in the subdivision began in 1998.
Pausing before he teed off near bluebird houses reflecting Merit Club's National Audubon Society certification, Mark Jensen of Libertyville said he and other members are proud to welcome the public to their course this week. Half the club's roughly 200 golfing and social members have volunteered to work at the tournament.
"One thing that has been impressive, I think, is the volunteers, the number of people who have volunteered out of the membership," Jensen said.
Set well off a winding drive accessed from Milwaukee Avenue, the Merit Club's stealthiness has extended to it often being placed in the wrong town. It has a Libertyville mailing address, but is fully within Gurnee's boundaries.
Unlike 2000 when the Merit Club hosted the U.S. Women's Open, Gurnee has received full name recognition in promotions leading up to the UL International Crown. Some village officials complained at public meetings in 2000 that Gurnee was not always mentioned in association with the U.S. Women's Open.
Mayor Kristina Kovarik said the UL International Crown will afford the public a rare opportunity to see the natural beauty that exists in her village.
"People don't even realize the Merit Club is there, much less what the Merit Club is," she said.