Medinah Country Club

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Medinah Country Club is a country club in Medinah, Illinois with nearly 600 members. Founded in 1925 by Medinah Shriners, its 640 acres contains three champion golf courses, Lake Kadijah, swimming facilities and a Byzantine, Oriental, Louis XIV, and Italian-style clubhouse.

Medinah is best known for Course #3, a 7,508 yard (7,385 m) course that’s hosted three U.S. Opens (1949, 1975, 1990) and two PGA Championships (1999, 2006).

Many golf legends have played Course #3, beginning with "Lighthorse" Harry Cooper at the Medinah Open in 1930 and running through Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Cary Middlecoff, Billy Casper, Gary Player, Hale Irwin, and finally Tiger Woods. Tommy Armour, winner of multiple major championships and the namesake of the well-known equipment company, was the head pro for many years.

Aside from the famous #3, Medinah has two other courses in a 54-hole complex. All three were originally designed by Tom Bendelow. After the 1930 Medinah Open, however, when Lighthorse Harry torched the course with a 63--the lowest score ever shot on the course--in the second round, Medinah's members went ahead with a Bendelow redesign, the first of several. Still, in essence the course remained the same until Roger Packard's major 1986 redesign in preparation for the 1990 U.S. Open, which has been followed by Rees Jones work in preparation for the 2006 PGA Championship. This latest incarnation served as the longest golf course in major championship history, and served as the setting for Tiger Woods' return to the form he displayed in 2000.

Tiger's dominance at Medinah continues Medinah's reputation as a course for great players. Woods' first win at the course, and his second professional major title, at the 1999 PGA Championship, foreshadowed his "annus mirabilis" of 2000, and was the first professional test of Woods' now-legendary grace under pressure. In a thrilling late-afternoon duel with then-19-year-old Sergio Garcia, one that witnessed the best shot Garcia ever hit (on the 16th hole), Woods maintained his focus despite a raucous crowd to preserve a one-shot lead and the win. In 2006, on a longer course, a now-veteran Woods destroyed the field and won by five shots. After that tournament, in recognition of his achievement, Woods was made a member of the club, the first player ever to be so recognized by Medinah. Yet this recognition only continues Medinah's long history of rewarding the game's best players.

That history, however, has arguably never received its due--though a consideration of it illuminates more than the history of American golf. Course #3 has never received the sort of ranking within the golf world that its history might suggest. There are perhaps several reasons for this. In the first place, being located in Chicago rather than the East Coast (or, more latterly, the West) may have factored against Medinah--most golf writers have hailed from the East, suggesting just why Winged Foot, Shinnecock, and Merion should be canonical American golf courses. Being Chicagoans, rather than Easterners, Medinah's membership has never possessed the bluest of bloods.

In the second place, Medinah has always hosted professional, rather than amateur tournaments. Golf is a sport that has revered the 19th century ideal of amateurism, an ideal most exemplified by the figure of Bobby Jones, longer than perhaps any other. There's a story from the 1950s regarding a legendary golf gambler at Medinah. In those days less-than-tony golfers often bypassed the PGA Tour, both because of the poverty of the purses and the still-existant social taboos against non-WASP golfers, and as a result could not prove themselves against the best players or courses. The bet was that the golfer could not shoot par at Medinah. He did--on every hole. Tiger Woods' career has been described as victories against American racism--but perhaps there is another dimension to his Medinah wins. If The Riviera Country Club is "Hogan's Alley," then Medinah is Tiger's, and there may not be a more significant alley in American golf.

Medinah Country Club

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