JAN/FEB 2007
Merkel takes the reins

Lee Merkel remembers well his introduction to the world of competitive golf. As a senior at Whitnall High School in Greenfield in the early 1960s, Merkel decided to take up the game and simultaneously try out for the school’s golf team. The coach – who apparently didn’t know a lot about golf, but nonetheless wanted to help – provided Merkel with all the instructional help at his disposal.

So he handed Merkel a copy of Ben Hogan’s “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.” And Merkel made the team.

Merkel, 62, continues to find his way in the game as he embarks on a two-year term as president of the Wisconsin State Golf Association. Merkel was elected to replace outgoing WSGA president Robert Muren of North Prairie by the WSGA Board of Directors in October.

Merkel, a lifelong Wisconsin resident who resides in West Bend, has done a little bit of a lot of things in the business world. He currently owns two Wisconsin golf courses, the Golf Club at Camelot in Lomira and West Bend Lakes GC in West Bend, and he previously owned three other southern Wisconsin golf courses. He’s part-owner of PowerCom Park, a race track in Beaver Dam, and previously he built, operated and finally sold a racquetball club in Menomonee Falls. Merkel even taught high school English in Brookfield for six years right after he graduated from UW-Whitewater.

Today, Camelot and West Bend Lakes consume Merkel’s business efforts, although he’s hardly alone in his work. His daughter, Laura Beaudoin, is the director of golf at Camelot, and his sister, Kay Shaffer, is the general manager. At West Bend Lakes, brother Jim Merkel is the general manager, son Tom is the golf course superintendent (assisted by Lee’s brother-in-law, Don Shaffer), nephew Chris Merkel is the director of golf and another brother, Bob Merkel, is the business manager.

Merkel and his wife, Jeanie, have five grown children and 11 grandchildren, and Merkel himself comes from a large family. In fact, there was a time several years ago when Merkel thought he had gotten out of the golf course business for good, but he jumped back in so the next generation could operate the businesses.

“The (golf courses) are very much family-oriented, which can be quite rewarding at times and quite difficult at times,” Merkel said. “But we’re a strong family; we’ve worked and played together for a long time. Family is very important to me.”

While working his way up the WSGA ladder, Merkel has offered a valuable perspective on the WSGA Board of Directors as a golf course owner. Perhaps not surprisingly, he has also enjoyed a long association with the Golf Course Owners of Wisconsin, a group which has grown closer to the WSGA in the last seven years or so. And there is no better example of the new spirit of cooperation between the WSGA and GCOW than Merkel himself.

“The Golf Course Owners of Wisconsin, the PGA professionals and the WSGA have probably never been closer in terms of communicating and understanding each other’s missions and having a group mission,” Merkel said. “I think there’s a pretty good synergy now. The relationship certainly has improved, and it will continue to improve.

“I think it’s important for us all to move in a direction where golf will continue to grow, and if we’re all on the same page in that effort, it will be a lot easier.”

The WSGA and the Wisconsin Section of the PGA of America have grown so close that the two groups recently moved into shared office space in West Allis. Getting those agreements signed, sealed and delivered was, according to Muren, one of the highlights of his two-year term as WSGA president. The other two things Muren looks back upon with pride are the revitalization of the WSGA Committeeman Program, which identifies and serves as a proving ground for future members of the WSGA Board of Directors, and the creation of the WSGA Foundation.

Although Muren’s tenure as WSGA president is coming to an end, he recently was named president of the WSGA Foundation, which was established in early 2006 and given a 501c (tax-exempt) classification by the Internal Revenue Service. The foundation has collected more than $5,700 so far, with about half of that amount donated by WSGA competitors through a check-off box on the tournament entry blanks.

“That was a very nice surprise,” Muren said of the player contributions. “And we’ve got some other people now who have indicated they will make some larger contributions, so we think we’re on the right path with that.”

The foundation will be used to benefit the game of golf, and Muren said more specific uses for the money will be determined this winter. One use, he said, might be to fund the annual WIAA high school golf championships, which the WSGA itself has been paying for.

As an attorney, Muren was intimately involved in all contractual matters related to the new offices and the WSGA Foundation. Now that the WSGA has all those ducks in a row, Merkel simply wants to sustain the momentum of the last two years.

“Bob Muren really got all the nuts and bolts taken care of,” said Merkel of his goals for the next two years. “I’m also very interested in the growth of the game. I think the WSGA can be part of growing golf in Wisconsin, and I think the WSGA can expand its services. The person who has not had a handicap, we want to get some kind of services to them so they understand what we are.

“We have a lot of opportunities to tell our story, and we need to tell it better.”

By his own admission, Merkel is not a serious competitive player, although he has participated in the state Father-Son and Father-Daughter championships, and he has that one season of high school play under his belt. He has also played golf all over the globe, including on trips to Scotland, England, Africa, Japan, Mexico and Canada.

Merkel’s handicap has been in the 7-16 range in recent years (currently his index is 9.6) but he said the life of a course owner isn’t always conducive to playing a lot of golf. He managed to get about 15 rounds in this season at Minocqua CC, where he is a member, but he almost never plays at Camelot or West Bend Lakes because he tends to get bogged down in a million business-related details whenever he’s on site.

“It’s sort of a misnomer, I think, that if you own a golf course you’ll be playing golf all the time,” he said. “In fact, you’ll probably play less.”

One area where Merkel’s background is slightly different from many who have come before him as WSGA president is the Rules of Golf. Merkel said he understands how important the rules are when it comes to handicapping and the smooth operation of tournaments, but don’t ask him to explain Rule 19-3. He said he plans to work at WSGA competitive events as needed in the coming years, but not as a rules official.

“We have some very good rules people involved in the WSGA,” Merkel said, smiling. “I would not be one of them.”