Chicago Golf Club

A USGA founding club whose Wheaton course, remodeled by Seth Raynor in the 1920s, is a near-complete set of Macdonald–Raynor template holes on open prairie.

Charles Blair Macdonald laid out golf in Chicago in the early 1890s, first at Belmont in Downers Grove, then on 200 acres of Wheaton farmland the club bought in 1894. Its rolling native grasses reminded him of Scotland. Chicago Golf Club was one of the five founding members of the USGA, and the out-of-bounds rule traces to complaints from neighbors once land around the course was developed.

By the 1920s the original design felt dated, and in 1922 the club brought in Macdonald's protege Seth Raynor to rework it, with Macdonald involved. The current course is largely Raynor's, built around his strategic template holes. The club hosted three early U.S. Opens and four U.S. Amateurs, the Walker Cup in 1928 and 2005, and the first U.S. Senior Women's Open in 2018. It remains one of the most private clubs in the country.

Championships

• U.S. Open 1897, 1900, 1911
• U.S. Amateur 1897, 1905, 1909, 1912
• Walker Cup 1928, 2005
• U.S. Senior Women's Open 2018

Design history

• Early 1900s: Minor changes suggested by Harry Colt
• From 1922: Seth Raynor, with Macdonald, completely remodeled the layout; first used for the 1928 Walker Cup