Glen View’s original 18 opened in 1897, laid out by the club’s first professional Richard Leslie in consultation with noted Chicago designer Herbert J. Tweedie; landscape architect and member O.C. Simonds planned the grounds. The club’s archival synopsis confirms the Leslie/Tweedie authorship and the 1897 opening.
In 1910, Tom Bendelow was engaged to “toughen” the course, with significant changes to bunkering and mounding recorded in the club’s historical materials prepared for the 2021 Western Amateur; those materials add that many reworked green complexes from early 20th-century campaigns were still influencing play well into the modern era.
Three years later, in 1913, Glen View undertook a modernization that contemporaries associated with the brief Chicago visit of Harry S. Colt and the on-site implementation by Donald Ross. A Chicago District Golf Association history of Ross in Chicago reports that the Glen View project produced “40 new bunkers,” and that Ross—rather than Colt—received credit for the finishing touches while the club president, Lewis Ferguson, shepherded the effort. This framing situates Glen View among Ross’s earliest Chicago-district assignments, occurring while he supervised construction at Old Elm and consulted nearby. Primary club records suffered from the 1920 clubhouse fire, a loss acknowledged in the 2021 tournament program, so the granularity of hole-by-hole changes in 1913 survives largely through such secondary reportage rather than original plans.
In 1922 Glen View commissioned William S. Flynn for a redesign. The club’s official history names Flynn as the author of the post-World War I overhaul, and later sources credit Flynn with reshaping the overall hazard scheme and, notably, transforming the seventeenth hole into an elevated green with a slight dogleg—an alteration that came to symbolize the “new” Glen View of the 1920s.
Subsequent decades brought episodic alterations. The club’s 2021 history mentions that Pete Dye assisted with work on the 8th and 15th holes in 1966, and a comprehensive 1999 project by David Esler expanded fairways, resurfaced and enlarged greens, and rebuilt bunkers—work that some observers felt did not fully recapture Flynn’s idiom.
Since 2013, consulting architect Jim Urbina has overseen a long-term restoration program directed explicitly at reviving Flynn’s “golden age” features; this has included reconstructing bunkers with more natural, irregular edges, expanding greens back toward historic boundaries, reintroducing fairway bunkers, squaring teeing grounds, and removing trees for agronomy and vistas. Club communications and independent reporting concur that Urbina’s work has “restored many elements of Flynn’s original design” and continued incrementally through the 2010s, alongside a rebuilt practice range on the old polo ground.
Unique Design Characteristics (Ross at Glen View)
Because Glen View today expresses Flynn’s 1920s redesign, visible “Ross holes” are difficult to isolate. The best-documented Ross episode is the 1913 modernization with approximately forty new bunkers. Even without surviving hole-by-hole plans, the scale of that campaign indicates the club sought contemporary hazard strategy—adding cross- and diagonal-influencing bunkers to an 1897/1910 framework—rather than altering the routing. The club’s own brief history makes no explicit claim about Ross’s work, and the 1922 Flynn redesign followed within a decade, so any 1913 bunker locations would have been candidates for removal, relocation, or reinterpretation by Flynn. As a result, the course’s clearest surviving design signatures are Flynn’s: for example, the changed 17th with its elevated green and slight dogleg, a shift singled out by the club’s 2021 history. The upshot for Ross researchers is that Glen View’s Ross layer is primarily documentary: a well-attested 1913 bunkering modernization in partnership with Colt, rather than extant, discrete Ross greens or routings that can be pointed to today. To confirm exact bunker placements and any green tweaks from 1913, primary sources—Ross or Colt plans, construction notes, or contemporary aerials—would be required; the 1920 fire that destroyed the original clubhouse complicates this archival trail.
Historical Significance
Glen View holds a conspicuous place in western golf history: it hosted the inaugural Western Open and Western Amateur in 1899, the U.S. Amateur in 1902 (won by member Louis N. James), and the U.S. Open in 1904 (won by Willie Anderson). These championships predated Ross’s 1913 visit but contextualize why a modernization was pursued—Glen View’s leadership had long kept the course in championship trim. Within Ross’s career arc, the 1913 Glen View assignment sits at the start of his concentrated Chicago-area work and, critically, underlines his brief collaboration with H.S. Colt that year: while Colt supplied concepts during a short U.S. stay, Ross implemented construction and supplied finishing details, as at Old Elm and Indian Hill. That the club turned to Flynn soon after underscores Chicago’s rapid stylistic evolution in the 1910s–20s and helps explain why Ross’s Glen View imprint today is mostly historical rather than physical.
Current Condition / Integrity
In its present configuration, Glen View reads as a Flynn course carefully stewarded back toward 1920s intent. The routing still traces the 1897 corridors across riverine ground; the Dewes log cabin remains between the 16th and 17th fairways as a tangible link to the property’s ante-golf era; and the club’s restoration program over the last decade has rebuilt bunkers with torn, irregular edges, expanded greens, reintroduced fairway hazards, and sharpened tee geometry—all with explicit reference to Flynn. Esler’s 1999 work set a modern baseline by enlarging most greens and refurbishing bunkers; Urbina’s post-2013 efforts then redirected the details toward Flynn’s aesthetics and strategies, and a new practice complex was completed as part of the same period agenda. On the other hand, the integrity of Ross’s 1913 bunkering program appears low: the 1922 redesign and later alterations (including the 1966 Dye input on two holes) mean direct Ross features are not plainly discernible on the ground. Any remnant influence likely survives only where Flynn adopted prior hazard sites or where landforms constrain choices, but present documentation does not substantiate specific Ross survivals hole-by-hole.
Citations and Uncertainty
Two evidentiary constraints shape a Ross-focused account at Glen View. First, the club lost many early records in the 1920 clubhouse fire; the Western Amateur program explicitly notes that “records of what roles various individuals played … were lost,” which limits reliance on primary drawings or minutes for 1913. Second, the club’s own brief history summarizes a direct line from Leslie/Tweedie to Flynn to Urbina without detailing Ross, while reputable secondary sources (including the CDGA’s Ross survey) assert a 1913 Ross/Colt modernization with ~40 new bunkers. Reconciling these perspectives suggests that Ross’s contribution was real but largely superseded within a decade by Flynn’s more thoroughgoing redesign. Firmly attributing any single existing hole or bunker to Ross therefore requires additional primary evidence: e.g., a Ross or Colt plan, construction ledger, or contemporary aerial/photographic series tied to specific holes.
Sources & Notes
Glen View Club. “Brief History of Glen View Club.” Accessed September 2025. Confirms 1897 opening; Leslie/Tweedie original; 1922 Flynn redesign; 2013 engagement of Jim Urbina; record of major championships.
Cronin, Tim. “The Enduring Genius of Donald Ross,” Chicago District Golfer (CDGA) / Medium, Nov. 17, 2022. Places Ross at Glen View in 1913 with H.S. Colt and club president Lewis Ferguson; reports “40 new bunkers” and credits Ross with finishing touches. Also situates Glen View within Ross’s Chicago-area itinerary.
Glen View Club. 2021 Western Amateur Championship at Glen View Club – Program Book, pp. 51–60 (AnyFlip). Provides long-form, club-vetted history: notes 1920 clubhouse fire and loss of some early records; Bendelow’s 1910 hazard and green reforms; details of Flynn’s redesign (including the transformed 17th); records Pete Dye’s 1966 assistance on Nos. 8 and 15; summarizes Esler’s 1999 project; documents scope and philosophy of Urbina’s post-2013 restoration and practice-range buildout; describes tree work, tee shaping, green expansion, and renewed fairway hazards.
Chicago District Golf Association (CDGA). “Glen View Club” course profile. Lists current tee names, yardages (Mach back tees 6,963 yards), and par. Used as the most authoritative public source for yardage/ratings.
U.S. Golf Association (USGA). “U.S. Amateur Results: 1895 to Present” (for 1902 Amateur at Glen View) and USGA club/host summaries; corroborative championship history used for context.
Western Golf Association. “Future stars to take on historic Glen View Club” (Western Amateur news). Confirms 1899 Western Open and Western Amateur at Glen View and long WGA association with the club.
The Fried Egg. “Design Notebook: An Upcoming Seminole Project,” Jan. 22, 2024. Independent note that Urbina’s 2013 work at Glen View restored many elements of Flynn’s original design.
Top100GolfCourses.com. “Glen View Club.” Secondary survey noting Flynn’s 1922 redesign and Esler’s 1999 restoration. Used cautiously to corroborate the 1999 project date and general scope in tandem with club and CDGA sources.
Disputed/uncertain points.
• Extent of Ross changes in 1913 and hole-level specifics. Secondary accounts (CDGA) assert ~40 new bunkers and credit Ross with finishing work, while the club’s brief online history does not detail Ross. Absent primary drawings/ledger entries, specific holes affected cannot be cited with confidence. Verification would require Ross or Colt plans, construction correspondence, or period aerials/newspaper descriptions of the 1913 changes.
• Survival of any Ross features. Given Flynn’s 1922 redesign and later work (Dye 1966; Esler 1999; Urbina 2013–), there is no documented, extant Ross green or hazard confidently identifiable today; the integrity of Ross’s layer is best characterized as low pending discovery of primary materials.