Idlewild Country Club

Idlewild Country Club sits in Flossmoor, a south suburban Chicago community established in the early twentieth century. The course reflects the work of two architects from different eras of American golf design. Tom Bendelow, a prolific early designer who laid out hundreds of courses across the Midwest in the 1910s and 1920s, created the original routing. Al Naylor, a Chicago-area architect active in the mid-twentieth century, later revised the layout. This combination of Bendelow's straightforward routing principles and Naylor's refinements gives the course its present character. The property occupies relatively flat terrain typical of the Illinois prairie landscape south of Chicago, with mature tree plantings that define holes and frame play corridors. The design follows traditional parkland principles, with tree-lined fairways and greens that reflect the strategic sensibilities of early American golf architecture. Bendelow's original work emphasized playability and efficient land use, while Naylor's contributions likely modernized bunkering, green complexes, and overall course length to meet evolving standards. Idlewild serves a membership drawn from the surrounding south suburban communities. The club maintains a quiet presence in the region's golf landscape, offering a course that balances historical design lineage with the practical needs of a suburban membership club. The layout provides a traditional round of golf shaped by two generations of Chicago-area course architecture.