Chicago Golf Club Makes Golf Magazine's Top 20 Courses

Beauty and the Beast
Mid Ocean and Chicago Golf Club, USA

The distinctive Chicago GC clubhouse.

How much does and should the setting of a layout play in judging the quality of the course? Should the architectural merits of a course on uninspired land be overshadowed by a striking course over dramatic property?

To illustrate this debate, let's look at Chicago Golf Club and the Mid Ocean Club. Both were originally designed by the mighty Charles Blair Macdonald and both share similar holes (e.g., a Redan, a Short hole). However, there the similarities end. The two sites could not be more different: Chicago GC on its barren plain and Mid Ocean on hilly terrain with several holes bordering Bermuda's cliff tops. Also, Chicago has been zealously preserved from when Macdonald's pupil Seth Raynor re-did the course in 1922 whereas Mid Ocean was subjected to a major rework by Trent Jones in the 1950s.

Chicago GC is notable for its strength and difficulty with no weaknesses in a pleasant setting that would not be noticed were it not for the course. The club adopts the imminently laudable feature of leaving trees out of play. In fact, if a tree grows to a point where it affects play, the club will quickly fell it. It is a course that lets you know how good of a player you really are, and there is little to distract you from your game.

Mid Ocean, on the other hand, is a roller-coaster, in terms of the land, the emotions and the quality of the course. While Chicago has nothing close to an indifferent hole, Mid Ocean has several, such as the 6^th and 11^th. However, the course more than compensates for these shortcomings by having just as many all-world holes (e.g., the 5^th and 17^th). There are holes where the player is content with bogey (the 9^th) and holes where anything less than birdie is a disappointment (the 2^nd).

Raynor would later employ the same stairstepped bunkers at Lookout Mountain
as pictured here at the 1st hole at Mid Ocean.

While Chicago has the atmosphere of a museum, Mid Ocean reminds one of those colorful travel posters from the 1950s.

Holes to Note:

1^st hole, Chicago GC, 440 yards: There is no 'easing' into the round here, as this brute leads the way over gently rolling land to a large, open green that features one of the enduring characteristics of many greens on the course - square corners. This hole asks a lot of the player right out of the gate, but the area around the green is generous, and the player is not disheartened walking away with 5 as he admits to himself that that would likely be his score no matter where in the round the hole fell.

Chicago's tough 1st, but note the open green

1^st hole, Mid Ocean, 410 yards: This appealing opener starts from a high tee with the player playing across a valley to the fairway and then across a more severe valley to the green perched at the edge of the cliff. The topography provides the player with a choice of plays off the tee - would he rather have a level stance or a shorter approach? An inspired start.

The left greenside bunker shot at Mid Ocean's 1st.