Historic Highlights: Illinois has hosted U.S. Open golf tournament 13 times

One hundred and thirty years ago, in 1895, the first United States Open golf tournament was played. Illinois has a longer history with the event than most.

The U.S. Open has been contested 13 times in the state of Illinois, trailing only New York and Pennsylvania. The first Open in the Land of Lincoln was the third annual event, at the legendary Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton in 1897.

The Chicago Golf Club became the first 18-hole course in North America.

In that time, the Open was a 36-hole, one-day event. The champion of the 35-player field in 1897 was Joe Lloyd of the United Kingdom, who collected $150 for his victory. The following year, the Open expanded to its familiar 72 holes.

Three years later, in 1900, the Open was back at the Chicago Golf Club, and the winner was Harry Vardon, a British player superstar who won 49 professional tournaments in his career, including six British Opens.

The Vardon Trophy, which goes to the PGA Tour player with the lowest scoring average in a given season, is named in his honor. He is also credited with the “Vardon grip,” a way to hold a golf club that revolutionized the sport.

In 1904, the event was held at the Glen View Club in the appropriately named community of Golf, Illinois. The champion was Scotsman Willie Anderson, who also won the event in 1901, 1903 and 1905. He is one of only three players in history to win three straight U.S. Open titles.

Two years later, the U.S. Open was hosted at the Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest, and another Scottish player, Alex Smith, won the title. Smith, who also took the 1910 U.S. Open, was the brother of Willie Smith, the 1899 U.S. Open champion. It was the fourth time in 10 years that a course in Illinois hosted the Open.

The tournament returned to Illinois in 1911, again at the Chicago Golf Club, and an American won for the first time in the event’s history.

That champion was 19-year-old John McDermott of Philadelphia, who remains the youngest man to ever win the Open. McDermott, who prevailed in an 18-hole, three-way playoff, also captured the Open in 1912. A few years later, he was wracked with mental health problems, and spent extended periods in hospitals for the rest of his life.

In 1914, the U.S. Open was played at Midlothian Country Club in the Chicago suburbs. That event was claimed by Walter Hagen, one of the superstars of early American golf, who won 11 professional majors – two U.S. Opens, four British Opens and five PGA Championships.

Eight years later, in 1922, Skokie Country Club in Glencoe was the host for the Open, and the winner was Gene Sarazen, who is one of six players with the career Grand Slam. He won 38 PGA tour events in his career, which had unusual longevity; 51 years after his win at Skokie, Sarazen aced the eighth hole at Troon in the 1973 British Open. He died in 1999 at age 97.

Olympia Fields, an outstanding course south of Chicago, hosted the U.S. Open in 1928, which was won by Johnny Farrell, a 22-time winner on the PGA Tour. Farrell defeated the iconic Bobby Jones in a 36-hole playoff for the title. The Open returned to Olympia Fields in 2003, when Jim Furyk was the champion.

The 1933 U.S. Open was at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, and the title went to Johnny Goodman, the last amateur to win an Open title. It was the lone PGA Tour victory for Goodman, a son of Lithuanian immigrants from Nebraska. Goodman won the U.S. Amateur title four years later. More recently, North Shore hosted a PGA Tour Champions event from 2013-15.

Medinah Country Club, northwest of Chicago, has been the site of three U.S. Opens, starting in 1949, when Cary Middlecoff, a former dentist, won the first of two career Open titles. The first-place money in 1949 was $2,000.

Middlecoff, a Tennessee native, won 39 PGA Tour events, tied for 10th all time, and is one of the more underrated players in American golf history. He also won the 1955 Masters and had three six-win seasons on the tour in his career.

In 1975, the Open came back to Medinah, and the champion was Lou Graham, who was one of many less-heralded players to win the event in the last half-century. Graham, another Tennessee native, won six times on the PGA Tour in his career.

At Medinah in 1990, the champion was Hale Irwin, the last of his three Open victories. Irwin, who captured 20 PGA Tour events and 45 Champions Tour events, edged Mike Donald in a playoff that lasted 19 holes.

The two were tied at the end of the playoff and needed an extra period in sudden death to decide the title. Irwin proceeded to win the next week’s tournament, the Buick Classic, as well.

Illinois has also hosted the U.S. Women’s Open three times since the event was founded in 1946, at the LaGrange County Club in LaGrange in both 1974 and 1981, and the Merit Club in Libertyville in 2000.

The state has also been home to the U.S. Amateur 12 times, including four at Chicago Golf Club, since that event’s inception in 1895.

• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at 217-710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com.