Skokie Country Club

Skokie Country Club sits in Glencoe, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, and features a Donald Ross design dating to 1914. The course occupies gently rolling terrain typical of the region, with mature tree-lined fairways and modest elevation changes that allow Ross's strategic principles to express themselves through green complexes and bunkering rather than dramatic landforms. The layout reflects Ross's characteristic emphasis on approach play, with greens that reward precise distance control and penalize misses with subtle slopes and closely mown surrounds. The club has a distinguished competitive history, most notably hosting the 1922 U.S. Open won by Gene Sarazen, then just twenty years old, in what marked his first major championship victory. That tournament helped establish both Sarazen's career and the course's reputation within American golf. Skokie also hosted the Western Open in 1921, when that event carried major championship status in the era before the Masters. The course underwent restoration work in the early 2000s to reclaim Ross's original design intent, with efforts focused on bunker restoration, green expansion, and tree management to reopen playing corridors and sightlines. The club maintains a traditional private club atmosphere consistent with its North Shore setting, serving a membership drawn largely from Chicago's northern suburbs. The routing works within a relatively compact property, creating an intimate scale where strategic variety compensates for limited overall length by modern championship standards.