Olympia Fields Country Club

Olympia Fields Country Club operated four courses through the 1920s on a piece of suburban-Chicago land that the founding membership bought as one of the largest private-club property acquisitions in American golf history. Willie Park Jr. designed the original North Course in 1916, and Tom Bendelow contributed the South Course in the early 1920s. The membership eventually consolidated to two courses, and the North Course has been the championship rotation venue throughout. Olympia Fields hosted the 1925 PGA Championship, the 1928 U.S. Open, the 1961 PGA Championship (Jerry Barber), the 2003 U.S. Open (Jim Furyk), and the 2020 BMW Championship.

The North Course plays around 7,400 yards par 70 from the championship markers, with bent fairways and a slope in the upper 140s. Jim Furyk won the 2003 U.S. Open at -8, with a Sunday round that included his signature swing under USGA championship pressure. The eighteenth — a 444-yard par-4 with a stone bridge crossing in front of the clubhouse — has been the tournament-photographic signature for nearly a century. The course's tree canopy gives the routing a parkland character; Park Jr.'s original strategic-design principles remain visible in the green complexes and the angle of approach play.

Olympia Fields is private and access is members and accompanied guests only. The membership has historically included Chicago corporate and South Side establishment figures, and the club has invested in continuous restoration to keep the North Course at major-rotation standard. The hospitality model is closer to a traditional country club than the destination-private clubs of the post-1990s era.

Chicago suburban climate gives Olympia Fields a playing season of April through October. The mature tree canopy keeps the routing cooler in mid-summer than the surrounding prairie suburban courses. The course closes through Chicago winter and reopens when the soil thaws — typically late April.