Olympia Fields Country Club facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Olympia Fields Country Club

Clubhouse in 2015
Club information
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Location	Olympia Fields, Illinois
Established	1915, 109 years ago
Type	Private
Total holes	36
Tournaments hosted	U.S Open (1928, 2003) PGA Championship (1925, 1961) U.S. Senior Open (1997) U.S. Amateur (2015) Women's PGA (2017) Western Open (5) BMW Championship (2020)
Website	ofcc.info
North Course
Designed by	Willie Park Jnr.
Par	70
Length	7,343 yards (6,714 m)
Course rating	76.6
Slope rating	150
South Course
Designed by	Tom Bendelow
Par	72
Length	7,106 yards (6,498 m)
Course rating	75.0
Slope rating	146
Olympia Fields Country Club
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Nearest city	Olympia Fields, Illinois
Built	1915
Architect	Bendelow, Thomas M.; Nimmons, George Croll, et al.
Architectural style	Tudor Revival
NRHP reference No.	01000082
Added to NRHP	February 9, 2001

Olympia Fields Country Club is a private golf club in the central United States, located in Olympia Fields, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, about 25 miles (40 km) south of The Loop. It contains two eighteen-hole courses, North and South. The North Course is considered one of the top three courses in the Chicago area, and is generally ranked in the top 50 courses in the United States. The South Course is regularly ranked in the top ten in Illinois. Olympia Fields is one of the few private clubs in the U.S. with multiple courses ranked, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

The club was founded 109 years ago in 1915. The first Club President was Amos Alonzo Stagg, the famous college football head coach and athletic director at nearby University of Chicago. The main dining room of the club is named in his honor. The North Course was designed by two-time British Open champion Willie Park, Jnr, and was lengthened prior to hosting the U.S. Open in 2003. It features some significant elevation changes, a meandering creek and hundreds of native oak trees. At one time it was one of four courses at the club, but after the club fell into financial difficulties during World War II, it was forced to sell off half of its land. Course No. 4 became the North Course, and the remaining holes from the other three courses were reconfigured to make the South Course.

Olympia Fields has hosted four major championships: two U.S. Opens (1928, 2003) and two PGA Championships (1925, 1961). It has also been the site of the U.S. Senior Open (1997) the U.S. Amateur (2015), and the 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship. In addition, the Western Open on the PGA Tour was played at the club five times.

Olympia Fields is famous for its enormous clubhouse, which was finished in 1925 at a cost of $1.3 million. It is a half-timbered English Tudor-style building with an 80-foot-high (24 m), four-faced clock tower that has become the trademark of the club. The western boundary of the property is bordered by a commuter rail line, Metra Electric District, and its Olympia Fields station is just west of the clubhouse; the line was previously the Illinois Central Railroad.

In 2005, the club began a $9.5 million renovation project to improve the practice facilities, revamp some of the bunkers, and make other improvements.

Tournaments hosted

Major championships

Includes amateur and professional major championships

Year	Tournament	Champion	Winning score	Winner's share ($)
1925	PGA Championship	Walter Hagen	6 & 5	500
1928	U.S. Open	Johnny Farrell	294 (+10)	500
1961	PGA Championship	Jerry Barber	277 (–3)	11,000
1997	U.S. Senior Open	Graham Marsh	280 (E)	232,500
2003	U.S. Open	Jim Furyk	272 (–8)	1,080,000
2015	U.S. Amateur	Bryson DeChambeau	7 & 6	n/a
2017	Women's PGA Championship	Danielle Kang	271 (–13)	525,000

• Bolded years are major championships on the PGA Tour.
• The PGA Championship was match play until 1958

Other tournaments

The Western Open was historically an important event in golf, a near-major.

Year	Tournament	Winner	Winning score	Winner's share ($)	Notes
1920	Western Open	Jock Hutchison	296
1927	Western Open	Walter Hagen	281
1933	Western Open	Macdonald Smith	282	500
1968	Western Open	Jack Nicklaus	273 (–11)	26,000
1971	Western Open	Bruce Crampton	279 (–5)	30,000
2020	BMW Championship	Jon Rahm	276 (-4)	1,710,000

Scorecards

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