Biography and History of the Chicago Golf Club
Established in 1892 by the visionary golf architect and amateur champion Charles Blair Macdonald, the Chicago Golf Club holds a peerless position in American golf history. Initially founded on a 9-hole layout in Belmont (now Downers Grove), the club quickly expanded its ambitions. By 1893, Macdonald had laid out an 18-hole course there—making it officially the first 18-hole golf course in the United States. Seeking a more permanent and expansive landscape, the club relocated in 1894 to Wheaton, Illinois, leasing and eventually purchasing the Patrick farm. It was here that American golf found one of its foundational cathedrals, deeply tied to the early governance, competitive structure, and architectural evolution of the sport.
As a powerhouse in the game's formative years, Chicago Golf Club became one of the five founding member clubs that established the United States Golf Association (USGA) in December 1894. Its founder, Macdonald, captured prestige for the club by winning the very first official U.S. Amateur Championship in 1895. The club's early years were characterized by a rapid succession of premier national championships. It hosted the U.S. Open in 1897, 1900, and 1911—events that crowned legendary champions like Harry Vardon and John J. McDermott, the first American-born winner of the tournament.
The club's landscape and infrastructure faced significant trials alongside its triumphs. Just weeks before hosting the 1912 U.S. Amateur, a devastating fire burned the original Wheaton clubhouse to the ground. Demonstrating characteristic resilience, members immediately rallied to pledge funds, and a magnificent new fireproof clubhouse designed by Jarvis Hunt opened by October 1913. Around this time, a famous cultural fixture also emerged: a young caddy named Chick Evans formed a legendary bond with members, beginning a lifelong association with the club that paralleled his own rise as an amateur golf icon.
By the end of the 1910s, golf architecture was evolving rapidly, and Macdonald urged the club to modernize. In response, Macdonald and his protégé, Seth Raynor, collaborated on a comprehensive reconstruction of the course beginning in 1921. Raynor sculpted a masterpiece of strategic design, incorporating classic template holes and capitalizing on the natural prairie terrain. Funded heavily through member contributions and transferable memberships, the stunning new Raynor layout officially opened for full play in July 1922, setting a permanent standard for architectural brilliance.
The redesigned course immediately drew elite competition, serving as the site of the historic 1928 Walker Cup. The American team—featuring titans like Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet, and Chick Evans—dominated Great Britain and Ireland in a display that went down in lore. Decades later, the club continued its championship pedigree by hosting the 2005 Walker Cup, showcasing future PGA Tour stars, and welcoming the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2018, won by Dame Laura Davies.
Throughout its history, Chicago Golf Club has remained remarkably faithful to its private, understated, and purist roots. It has resisted commercial sprawl while maintaining a profound influence on the game's heritage. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the club preserves a rare atmosphere where the echoes of Macdonald, Raynor, Vardon, and Jones still linger over pristine fairways.
Today, Chicago Golf Club stands not only as an architectural treasure and a museum of American golf milestones, but as a living institution dedicated to walking the links in the true spirit of "Far and Sure."