The “hyperexclusive” club in Wheaton, Ill. is hosting the new USGA championship July 12-15, marking its first tournament event since the Walker Cup in 2005. Chicago Golf Club, with the oldest 18-hole golf course in North America, was one of five founding members of the USGA and hosted three U.S. Opens between 1897 and 1911.
While some golf clubs host tournaments with the aim of boosting membership or selling gear, and others do it to gain prestige, the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill., had a different agenda in agreeing to host the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open, which will be held from July 12-15, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“For the love of the game,” was event Chairman Jack Gleason’s explanation for why the storied 126-year-old club that the Tribune described as “the area’s Augusta National… hyperexclusive but thoroughly understated,” and which has hosted 11 United States Golf Association (USGA) events, including the 1897, 1900 and 1911 U.S. Opens, is now back in the spotlight with its first championship tournament since the 2005 Walker Cup.
With the oldest 18-hole golf course in North America, designed by Charles B. Macdonald, Chicago Golf Club became one of five founding member clubs of the USGA in 1894. The course ranks 14th on Golf Digest’s latest list of America’s Greatest Courses, and third in the Midwest behind Sand Hills in Nebraska and Crystal Downs in Michigan.
And as the Tribune reported, there’s no entrance sign for the club’s property, it has no tennis courts, no air conditioning in the clubhouse, and no signs directing players to the next tee. The standard wager among members is a $1 Nassau, meaning $3 are at risk. In short, the Tribune noted, it’s still all about the golf at Chicago Golf Club.
“For us to have our very first event and for Chicago Golf Club to step up and allow us to use their facility to test our skills, it doesn’t get any better,” Pat Bradley, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame who will be among the 120 players teeing it up for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, told the Tribune.
The Chicago GC course will be set up at roughly 6,082 yards as a par 73 for the championship, the Tribune reported. No. 2, traditionally a par-4, will play as a 445-yard par-5.
The USGA received 462 entries from women 50 or older who attempted to qualify for the event, the Tribune reported, and sixteen U.S. Women’s Open champions are expected to compete.
The tournament will be competed as four rounds of 18-hole stroke play, for a total purse of $1 million. FS1 will televise the final two rounds from 3 to 5 p.m on July 14 and 15.
The USGA announced the creation of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2015, increasing the number of national championships it annually conducts to 14.
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