- Courses
- North America
- USA
- Illinois
- Address500 Washington Ave, Glencoe, IL 60022, USA
- Championships hosted
The Links of Skokie Country Club, as it was originally called, has a long history that dates back to 1897 when a group of wealthy Chicago businessmen bought the property on which the golf course at Skokie Country Club now occupies. It is thought that the village of Skokie – a Chicago suburb – acquired its name from a Potawatomi Indian word for “marsh”. Indian-born Herbert J. Tweedie laid out the initial course along with member George Leslie.
Skokie Country Club started out in life as a 9-hole course which was redesigned by Thomas Bendelow in 1904. Skokie acquired the Donald Ross moniker after the great architect paid the club a visit in 1914, adding archetypical bunkering and domed greens. He kept only the 8th hole from the Bendelow layout. Skokie played host to the 1922 US Open, the first at which tickets were sold. A record number of spectators witnessed a spectacular win by a certain 20-year-old Gene Sarazen.
In the late 1930s, following the acquisition of more land, William Langford and Theodore Moreau were commissioned to redesign Skokie with one eye focused on Donald Ross’s earlier intentions. They retained approximately half the Ross holes. Rees Jones made some minor modifications in the early 1980s, but the course in play at Skokie today is largely in the design image and likeness of Langford and Moreau.
Perhaps Skokie’s best hole is the double dogleg par five 11th which is heavily bunkered from fairway to green and flanked on the right by a brook.
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Donald Ross worked with Old Tom Morris at St Andrews in 1893 then spent part of the following season at Carnoustie before returning to serve under the Dornoch club secretary John Sutherland.
