Donald Trump and golf is more than a game. It is a passion." In 1999, Trump opened his first golf course: the Trump International Golf Club, West Palm Beach in Florida. Land for the US$45 million course was acquired through a lawsuit against Palm Beach County, Florida after Trump's purchase of the Mar-a-Lago resort. By 2007, Trump owned 4 courses around the US. Following the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Trump began purchasing existing golf courses and re-designing them. Golf courses owned by Trump hosted the LPGA Tour finale from 2001 to 2008, as well as the 2009 US Junior Amateur and US Junior Girls
Merion Golf Club until 1941. Hugh Wilson had never designed a golf course, so he went on a seven-month trip to Scotland and England to study British courses. Several features of Merion East are derived from famous British courses, not the least of which are Merion's distinctive Scottish-style bunkers, which are now known as the "white faces of Merion" (named by top amateur player Chick Evans). Wilson's layout covers only of land, a very small area for a golf course. It was ranked 5th in "Golf Digest"'s "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses" in 2015, and Jack Nicklaus has said of Merion East, "Acre