Medinah (No.2)

The No.2 course at Medinah Country Club reopened in 2017 after a comprehensive Rees Jones restoration which focused on green complexes and bunkers, using aerial photographs from 1938 to establish their original size, shape and location.

Reputed to have cost $2.5 million, the restoration project was aimed at returning the course to its original 1926 design aesthetic, at the same time constructing modern USGA greens, along with new tees and bunkers. Fairways were also converted to bentgrass and extensive storm drainage improvements carried out.

“No.2 hadn’t been touched for a very long time so the original design ideas were evident,” Rees Jones explained in an article on his firm’s website. “The trees were overgrown, the greens had shrunk, and several bunkers had been eliminated. So, we were able to restore it back to how Tom Bendelow originally designed it.

Most of the greens have open entrances so they are easy to access. The bunkers are scattered much like you would find from many courses from that era, when architects tried to build British links-style courses inland, and so many of the bunkers are located farther away from the surface of the greens.

The greens are challenging, and interesting. There are many low- mowed areas surrounding them which allow for a variety of recovery shot options. The greens and the green surrounds are the predominant feature of this golf course.”