Pre-Ross context (1898–1905). Skokie began as a nine on marshy ground in the late 1890s, then engaged Tom Bendelow to create a full 18 that opened in 1905 at roughly 6,125 yards. This Bendelow routing established corridors but was soon outpaced by the rubber-core ball and new notions of hazard placement.
Ross redesign (1914 planning; 1915 opening). The club hired Donald Ross in 1913–14 “to once again improve the golf course,” drawing on some Bendelow corridors, reversing the direction of selected holes, and incorporating recently acquired land. The Ross course opened in 1915 to strong national notices, playing par 70 at 6,340 yards. The club’s own historical summary identifies this as the moment when Skokie became a bona fide championship venue.
Championship proof (1922). The USGA brought the U.S. Open to Skokie in July 1922. Set at par 70, 6,548 yards, the Ross-era layout produced a tightly bunched leaderboard and Gene Sarazen’s first major title. The Tribune-sourced hole list preserved by later compilations confirms the tournament yardages and pars by hole.
Langford & Moreau reworking (1938). After the club bought additional land, William Langford and Theodore Moreau “substantially reworked the Ross layout,” adding length and, according to the club’s history page, leaving today’s holes 3–7 and 11–13 as primarily L/M creations. Nines were reversed from 1946 to 1997, a procedural change that affected sequence but not the underlying authorship.
Late-20th-century alterations and restorations. Rees Jones made targeted changes in the early 1980s—most notably adding a pond at hole 13 and adjusting bunkering. In 1998–2000, Ron Prichard embarked on a broad restoration aimed at recovering Ross’s scale and ground options within the hybrid Ross/Langford framework. The Donald Ross Society notes that Prichard lacked a trove of original photos or plans and therefore had to base decisions on comparative Ross evidence and surviving ground forms. In 2022, Brian Schneider (Renaissance Golf Design) refined bunkering and green complexes, a light-touch update consistent with the club’s stated commitment to its “classical roots.”
Ross’s direct returns. The club’s public record documents Ross’s 1914 engagement and the 1915 opening; it does not publish minutes or correspondence confirming subsequent Ross site visits.
Unique Design Characteristics (as they appear at Skokie)
Ross’s strategic spine within a composite course. Even with later reworkings, the club’s hole narratives reveal Ross markers that still govern play: diagonal and cross bunkers steering tee-ball lines (#4 and #10); tilted, often two-tier or “saucered” greens that reward precise placement (#1 and #7); and false fronts that test distance control (#4, #8, #18). The club explicitly calls #7’s green “a large Ross green, an upside-down saucer,” and singles out #8—“Skokie’s oldest” green, on higher ground with a severe false front—suggesting a survivor from the earliest generations preserved through later work.
Ground-contour defenses rather than forced water. With the exception of the modern ponds at #9 and #13 (the latter tied to Rees Jones’s work), most jeopardy remains on the ground: ridges, drop-offs behind greens (e.g., #1), and angled bunker lines that narrow optimal approaches (e.g., cross-bunkering short of #10 and the bisecting line before #3’s green). These elements echo the 1922 setup, when par 70 at 6,548 demanded accuracy and trajectory rather than merely power.
Holes that read most “Ross” today. Within the composite, the clearest Ross signatures—by form and by club commentary—occur at #1 (tiered target, high-shouldered flanking bunkers, severe miss long), #4 (cross-bunkered tee shot into a green with a pronounced false front), #7 (the “upside-down saucer” green with back-right to front-left movement), and #18 (another strong false front with deep front bunkers). Each asks for angle control into a green that rejects marginal strikes, which matches the way contemporary accounts described the 1915–1922 Skokie.
Historical Significance
Why Skokie matters in the Ross canon. Skokie’s 1915 Ross redesign quickly earned national standing—the U.S. Open arrived seven years later—and the 1922 championship remains a cornerstone of his Midwest portfolio, alongside contemporaneous Chicago-area commissions. Historically, Skokie also illustrates the dialogue between Ross’s work and Langford & Moreau’s later “Midwestern classicism”: a rare case where a Ross core was intentionally extended and partially re-routed by another elite team, then brought back toward a Ross look-and-play presentation by modern restoration. The club’s own record of major events—1909 Western Open, 1922 U.S. Open, 1952 Women’s Western Open, 1998 U.S. Senior Amateur, 2010 and 2017 Western Amateur—situates the course within a century-long championship lineage. The club also documents current rankings inside Illinois’ top ten and national “classic” lists, underscoring its ongoing reputational weight.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing and authorship layers. The present sequence preserves Ross’s 1915 championship-grade framework while acknowledging Langford & Moreau’s 1938 imprint—explicitly at holes 3–7 and 11–13—and subsequent targeted changes. That layered authorship means “integrity” cannot be measured as a pure Ross survival; rather, it is the interplay of Ross corridors and green ideas with L/M’s lengthening and scale.
Greens and bunkers. The club’s hole notes emphasize false fronts (#4, #8, #18), two-tier interior contours (#1), and saucered profiles (#7), all consistent with Ross-era targets that put a premium on approach control. Bunkering has evolved: Jones’s early-1980s work adjusted placements and added #13’s pond; Prichard’s restoration and Schneider’s 2022 project sought to restore classical bunker forms and renew green edges based on surviving features and comparative Ross evidence (the Ross Society notes the absence of a “providential cache” of original plans). From an integrity standpoint, the putting surfaces and their surrounds carry the strongest Ross DNA; fairway bunkering today reflects a composite of Ross/Langford spacing, post-war treeing, and late-century recalibration.
Sources & Notes
Skokie Country Club – “Our Story” (History) page. Club’s official history, including authorship chronology (Tweedie/Lesslie early work; Bendelow 1904–05; Ross engaged 1913/14; 1915 opening at par 70/6,340), Langford & Moreau’s 1938 reworking with holes 3–7 and 11–13 identified, the 1946–1997 nine-reversal, Rees Jones changes in the early 1980s (including pond at #13), Ron Prichard restoration in 1999–2000, and 2022 bunkering/green-complex refinement by Brian Schneider.
Skokie Country Club – Golf pages (hole-by-hole with “Scorecard” tab). Current hole descriptions and strategic notes (e.g., #1 two-tier target and high-shouldered flanking bunkers; #4 cross-bunkers and false front; #7 “large Ross green, an upside-down saucer”; #8’s false front and status as “Skokie’s oldest” green; #18’s severe false front and deep front bunkers). Also notes recent accolades and Audubon status.
USGA / historical compilations of the 1922 U.S. Open. Tournament set-up at par 70 / 6,548 yards with a hole-by-hole ledger drawn from Chicago Daily Tribune reporting; Gene Sarazen champion. (Useful for anchoring Ross-era scale.)
Donald Ross Society – Skokie CC entry. Confirms 1914 Ross engagement; notes the 1999 Prichard restoration lacked a “providential cache” of photos or plans, implying reliance on comparative Ross evidence and surviving features.
Top100GolfCourses – Skokie CC profile. Secondary synthesis of authorship sequence (Bendelow → Ross 1914/15 → Langford & Moreau), with note that Ross “kept only the 8th hole” from Bendelow—an oft-repeated claim that should be verified against primary plans.