Interlachen was founded in late 1909 and opened a nine-hole course by William (Willie) Watson on July 29, 1911, on farmland served by the suburban streetcar. In 1919 the club commissioned Donald Ross to redesign the property into a completely new 18-hole course; the “new” course opened in 1921 and has anchored the club’s identity ever since. The club’s own history notes that Ross’s hole-by-hole blueprints survive on site, and that they guided later restoration work.
Ross’s design intent is unusually well documented through those blueprints. A period instruction on the ninth hole directed shapers to “cut down the sharp ridge” in the fairway and use the material “to fill in the left end of the lake” to create a fair option for shorter players—an explicit balance of challenge and accommodation that shaped Interlachen’s famous par-5/4 ninth over water.
After Ross: Willie Kidd, Interlachen’s long-tenured professional, “redesigned portions of the course” (the club’s history does not date or detail that work), and Robert Trent Jones was retained around 1960 to survey the course; by 1963 revised versions of the first and third holes were put into play. Geoffrey Cornish undertook a renovation in 1986.
Twenty years later the club rebuilt bunkers to a master plan by Brian Silva (2006–07), a project documented by the Interlachen Grounds Committee. That work included targeted architectural changes—combining the two left fairway bunkers on #1, removing left greenside bunkers on #6 and #7 and reinstalling original Ross bunkers 30 yards short of those greens—plus full sand and drainage upgrades.
Most recently, Andrew Green led a comprehensive restoration from 2023 into 2024 using the on-site Ross drawings as the primary evidence base. The club reopened the course in August 2024, and contemporary reporting confirms a 14-month, wall-to-wall scope intended to “restore that vision while making it work for the modern game.” The work received Golf Digest’s “Best Renovation” recognition for 2024 and vaulted Interlachen back into GOLF’s U.S. Top-100 at No. 73.
Unique Design Characteristics
Ross’s routing at Interlachen exploits a series of glacial ridges and the margins of Mirror Lake. The par-4 2nd and 3rd climb and fall along a primary ridge; the par-4 4th drives across a valley to a green perched on a rise; and the home hole (#18) returns dramatically along the higher ground to the clubhouse. Green’s restoration emphasized these patterns by expanding fairway width back over shoulders and re-establishing diagonal lines of play that had narrowed.
Water features are not ornamental here but integral to the shot decisions. The ninth remains the signature hole—historically a par 5 but often set as a par 4 in championships—where a bold second must carry the lake to a green that Ross purposefully made approachable for more than one caliber of player (as his blueprint note makes plain). Bobby Jones’s famous “lily pad” birdie in the 1930 U.S. Open occurred at this hole, when his mishit second skipped across the lake to the far bank.
Interlachen’s par-3 5th is now a telling example of Ross’s green-site artistry restored: corners expanded, the central transition reconnected, and the original wrap of bunkers reinstated. Club officials have likened its presentation, post-restoration, to an “island green” feel framed by sand rather than water.
Greens on the 3rd and 6th—long cited by raters as standouts—were pushed back to their original fill pads and recaptured internal contour, and many surrounds were lowered to short grass to bring running recoveries back into play. The short par-4 10th remains a study in a sharply back-to-front surface (documented by modern observers) that punishes approaches missed above the hole. Across the property, bunkering was re-positioned and varied in scale; the club cites 104 bunkers after restoration, including an “island bunker” between 11 and 12 and a “church-pew-like” feature at 14.
Among the clearest surviving—and now re-clarified—examples of Ross’s work are the uphill par-4 2nd, the across-the-valley 4th, the encircled par-3 5th, the short, exacting 10th, and the ridge-line 12th–13th sequence. Each exhibits the original routing logic and the re-established green edges that the 2023–24 work sought to honor.
Historical Significance
Interlachen’s place in Ross’s portfolio is secured by its role in championship golf. The 1930 U.S. Open was contested here on a Ross course still fresh—a championship Jones won en route to his Grand Slam, with the “lily pad” shot on #9 becoming part of club lore. The club later hosted the 1935 U.S. Women’s Amateur, the 1993 Walker Cup (USA victory), the 2002 Solheim Cup (USA victory), and the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open, won by 19-year-old Inbee Park, the youngest champion in the event’s history. The USGA has awarded Interlachen the 2030 U.S. Women’s Open, timed to the centennial of Jones’s 1930 triumph at the club.
Critically, the 2024 restoration returned Interlachen to the national conversation on classic-era parkland courses; GOLF’s raters placed it 73rd on the 2024–25 U.S. Top-100, and Golf Digest named it Best Renovation of 2024. Those assessments specifically praised the recovery of Ross’s green extents and the strategic reintroduction of his bunkering patterns.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing integrity remains high: the essential 1919–21 Ross plan is intact, including the sequencing around Mirror Lake and the ridge-line passages on the outward and inward nines. The most intrusive 20th-century alterations—the Jones revisions to #1 and #3 and various late-century bunker reconstructions—have been reconciled with the historical record through successive projects, notably the 2006–07 Silva bunker rebuild (which reinstated short bunkers left on #6 and #7 and revised the left fairway bunker scheme on #1) and the 2023–24 Green restoration (which expanded greens to original edges, widened fairways from ~28 to ~34 acres, and re-positioned bunkers in keeping with Ross’s diagrams while calibrating for today’s distances). The club’s bunker report documents the Silva scope and the subsequent adoption of Better Billy Bunker liners; contemporary reporting and club statements document the 2024 work and reopening.
Conditions today reflect a renewed emphasis on ground options: firm, sand-capped approaches; lowered surrounds; and tree management that re-exposes cross-slopes on holes like 2, 3, 12 and 13. Green’s team also lengthened the course to about 7,201 yards from the longest tees and re-introduced a dozen bunkers (to ~104 total), steps that sharpened angles without disturbing Ross’s corridors. For daily play the club sets par at 72; major setups have flexed that (e.g., par 73 in 2008; par 70 in 1930).
Citations and Uncertainty
Scope and dating of Willie Kidd’s changes. The club’s history acknowledges that Kidd “redesigned portions” of the course but does not provide dates or plans.
Robert Trent Jones’s involvement. Sources differ: a club-adjacent summary says Jones was retained in 1960 with revised #1 and #3 opening in 1963; other accounts simply list “alterations in 1963,” while a modern course profile asserts 1959 work limited to the first and third greens.
Sources & Notes
Interlachen Country Club, “Our History” (club site), noting Watson’s 1911 course, Ross’s 1919 redesign with 1921 completion, later work by Kidd, Jones, Cornish, Brian Silva, and Andrew Green; also lists USGA events and 2024 restoration.
LINKS Magazine, “Interlachen Country Club, Minnesota,” quoting Ross’s blueprint instruction for the 9th hole and summarizing course features.
The Fried Egg, “Finding Donald Ross’s Interlachen,” on routing across ridgelines, specific holes (2, 3, 4, 18) and the 2024 restoration approach.
Interlachen Country Club Grounds Committee, Report to Membership About Our Bunkers (club PDF), documenting 2006–07 Brian Silva bunker rebuild and specific bunker changes on #1, #6, #7; adoption of Better Billy Bunker system.
WCCO/CBS Minnesota, “Interlachen reopens after major renovation,” Aug. 13, 2024 (on 14-month restoration and use of original Ross plans).
GOLF.com, “Andrew Green’s Interlachen restoration…” (Top-100 newcomer spotlight), Nov. 17, 2024, on widened fairways, green expansions (e.g., at #3 and #6), tree removal, and Ross routing across ridges; lists rank No. 73.
Shea Design, “Golf Digest Awards Interlachen with Best Renovated Golf Course Honors,” Jan. 28, 2025 (project context; West Campus facilities: Lodge, Fieldhouse, pavilion).
AE Golf News, “Interlachen Country Club: The Return to Ross,” Oct. 16, 2024 (interview with club Director of Golf; post-restoration yardage ~7,201; fairway acreage; bunker count; details on #5 and USGA Media Center, “USGA significantly elevates U.S. Women’s Open…,” Jan. 7, 2022 (announcing Interlachen as 2030 host and listing prior USGA championships at the club).
USGA, championship archive for the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open (Inbee Park, course played to par 73 / 6,789 yards).
Wikipedia, “1930 U.S. Open (golf),” last updated 2025 (Jones’s win at Interlachen; par 70; “lily pad” account). Used cautiously as a secondary source; corroborated by LINKS Magazine narrative.