Chicago Golf Club

Overview: Chicago Golf Club is a hallowed bastion of American golf, a place of intense exclusivity and immense historical significance. Located in Wheaton, Illinois, it is the site of the first 18-hole golf course in the United States and remains one of the five founding member clubs of the USGA. The course is a definitive expression of the "Macdonald-Raynor" style, featuring a relatively flat, open landscape with "rifle-straight" fairways and large, bold, often rectangular green complexes. It is a pure strategic test that utilizes classic template holes to challenge the golfer, offering a playing experience that feels strikingly austere, grand, and historically authentic.

History: The club was founded in 1892 by C.B. Macdonald, the pioneer of American golf. The current site in Wheaton opened in 1895, but the masterpiece that exists today was essentially created in 1923 when Seth Raynor redesigned the course at Macdonald’s urging. Raynor’s layout preserved the strategic spirit of Macdonald’s original while introducing the bold, engineered features that would become his trademark. The club has hosted numerous major championships, including three U.S. Opens, and was the site of the inaugural Walker Cup in 1928. Today, with a membership limited to around 120 and a National Historic Landmark status, it remains one of the most private and respected institutions in the sport.

Did You Know? Chicago Golf Club is famous for its "geometric" aesthetics. The greens are often square or rectangular, and the bunkers are frequently laid out with straight lines and sharp angles, a design philosophy that reflects Seth Raynor’s background as a civil engineer and his commitment to the "template" method of strategic design.