Beverly Country Club

George O’Neil, the club’s first professional, and architect Tom Bendelow laid out the original golf course at Beverly when it was formed in 1908. Ten years later, Donald Ross redesigned the layout and the rest, as they say, is golfing history.

Unusually, because the course is bounded on all sides by Windy City suburbs, it is set out in two rectangular parcels, with the front nine holes lying to the north of 87th Street and the back nine laid out on the other side – Beverly really is a fine example of a designer getting the very best out of the land available to construct a course.

The US Amateur championship was won at this course by Francis Ouimet back in 1931 and two modern day golfing greats – Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer – captured the Western Open here in 1963 and 1967.

Following a substantial renovation program by Ron Prichard in 2002 – involving the removal of trees, refurbishment of bunkers and enlargement of putting surfaces – the club was chosen by the USGA to host the Amatuer Seniors Championship in 2009, which was fair reward for the effort put in to restore a Ross classic.