Olympia Fields Country Club Course Review

The Olympia Fields Country Club was founded in 1923 as a private resort, available just for members and their guests and the golf course was designed by architect Willie Park Jr., featuring 7533 yards of golf from its longest tees for a 70 par. Located just south of Chicago, the North course at Olympia Fields country club makes for the quintessential US Open layout, with its excellent routing and strategical layout, impeccable and very fast greens, not to mention its location, i.e. near a major city. As per accolades, the Olympia Fields country club hosted the 2003 US Open, its most recent achievement, not to mention the 1928 US Open or the 1997 US Senior open together with 5 Western Opens and 2 PGA Championships. Pedigree wise, the Olympia Fields has a rich history, similar to some of the best golf courses in the United States.

What is known today as the North course is basically what remained intact from the original architecture; the Olympia Fields had three additional courses before the war, but they were decommissioned after WW2 as they incurred too much debt. As an interesting factoid, the second course at Olympia Fields was built from scrap, i.e. from the surviving holes of the aforementioned (decommissioned) 3, which were put together to produce the actual South course, which also features an excellent layout and provides players with a challenging experience. However, the star of the show remains the North course, as prior to the 2003 US Open it suffered a massive restoration job, with all its 87 bunkers being rebuilt, together with the greens and a modern irrigation system was put into place.