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

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