Columbus Park Golf Course

Columbus Park Golf Course occupies a historic site on Chicago's West Side, designed by Tom Bendelow in the early twentieth century as part of the city's ambitious parks movement. Bendelow, a prolific architect who shaped hundreds of municipal courses across America during golf's first expansion era, created Columbus Park as an accessible public facility within the broader Columbus Park complex designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen. The course reflects the practical, straightforward design philosophy Bendelow employed for municipal projects, providing playable golf on relatively compact urban acreage. The layout navigates gently rolling parkland terrain characteristic of Chicago's western neighborhoods, with mature trees framing many holes and defining playing corridors. As a municipal course serving a diverse urban population, Columbus Park has functioned for decades as an entry point to the game for Chicago residents, offering affordable golf within city limits. The design emphasizes functionality over dramatic features, with straightforward holes that accommodate players of varying skill levels. Columbus Park represents an important piece of Chicago's public golf infrastructure and stands as one of the surviving examples of Bendelow's municipal work in a major American city. The course continues to serve its original mission of providing accessible golf to the community, maintaining its role in the city's network of public courses that have introduced generations of Chicagoans to the game.