Midlothian Country Club

Herbert Tweedie designed Midlothian Country Club's current routing in 1898 on a piece of Midlothian, Illinois Chicago south-suburban land. The course's place in American golf history is permanently tied to the 1914 U.S. Open — Walter Hagen won his first major championship at Midlothian Country Club at age twenty-one, in conditions that produced one of the formative competitive experiences of his major-championship career. The course has been redesigned multiple times since the 1898 opening, with significant work through subsequent decades preserving the institutional architectural framework.

The course plays around 6,800 yards par 71 from the back markers, with bent fairways and a slope in the upper 130s. The yardage is short by modern championship standards, but the routing's age and the natural Chicago south-suburban terrain — the property has been a golf course continuously since 1898 — give the course defense that modern equipment doesn't overcome through length alone. The fairways play firm given the Illinois prairie subsoil. The mature deciduous canopy through the property has grown to championship-narrowing dimensions over the club's 125-plus year history.

Midlothian Country Club is private and access is members and accompanied guests only. The membership is regional Chicago south-suburban business and professional families with multi-generation ties through the club's late-1800s founding. The 1914 U.S. Open Walter Hagen first major institutional history is the primary identity, and the hospitality model is traditional country club.

Chicago climate gives Midlothian a playing season of April through October. The course closes through Chicago winter and reopens when the soil thaws. The mature deciduous canopy and the autumn color through October are part of the routing's seasonal photographic signature.