Beverly Country Club

Beverly's founders first played as the Auburn Park Golf Club on rented land at 79th and Morgan Streets. According to Paul Richards, the club's historian, a 1907 committee chose a wooded, hilly rectangle between Western Avenue and the Baltimore & Ohio tracks, and the club was organized and the course built in 1908. The club's first professional, George O'Neil, is credited with the layout, reportedly with help from Tom Bendelow. Tim Cronin's centennial history finds no confirmed record of Bendelow working on the routing. O'Neil's course measured 6,050 yards with a bogey of 80, and Chick Evans won the 1910 Western Open on it.

Donald Ross came next. Cronin dates the club's contract with Ross to 1917, by which time Beverly had bought more land, including the northeast corner where the 4th fairway now runs and a parcel for today's 18th tees. In the spring of 1918, on the night the board approved plans for a new clubhouse to replace one lost to fire, Ross submitted his plan for remodeling the course; The American Golfer reported that it lengthened the course by about 500 yards, to roughly 6,300. Newspapers covered a Ross visit to the club. His master plan reworked the front nine and the finish, and it was carried out in stages over most of a decade: board minutes from 1922 authorized the Grounds Committee to complete its reconstruction of the course under the Ross Plan, and the 1930 Western Amateur marked the debut of the remodeled course. The plan itself has not been found. In 1932 a topographical plan of the Ross routing was drawn by the architectural firm of Chick Evans, and the 1st and 9th were altered that year for the widening of 87th Street.

Holes to Know

From the Championship tees (7,063 yards) Beverly is par 36 out and 35 in. It has five par 3s, nine par 4s and four par 5s, two of them over 600 yards, and the back nine opens par 3, par 5, par 3.

The 590-yard 2nd from the Championship tees, the hole the club's Grounds Chair picked in 2020 to show the restoration, falls about 40 feet from the ridge into the old lake basin, with bunkers alternating down the fairway and two more at the front corners of a long, narrow green.

The 453-yard 8th from the Championship tees has a bunker on the centre line about 90 yards short of the middle of the green, and the only sand near the green is one bunker just off its front-right corner. That green is about 61 yards deep, the largest on the course.

The 145-yard 12th from the Championship tees is the shortest hole. A pond fills the line from about 70 to 105 yards and five bunkers ring a green rebuilt in 2019-20 to the shape it had for the 1931 U.S. Amateur.

The 229-yard 17th from the Championship tees plays from a raised tee over a bunker on the line about 50 yards short of a green that tilts hard from back to front.

The 609-yard 18th from the Championship tees has no sand in the drive zone and bends right about 300 yards out toward the clubhouse. Bunkers flank a green that slopes steeply toward the fairway.

Ross's Design Here

The club credits Ross with a routing in which no two consecutive holes run the same way, inside a rectangle bounded by three arterial streets and a railroad. He keyed the front nine to the ridge that runs from behind the 5th green east to the high ground above the 2nd fairway. The 2nd drops off it, the 5th climbs back to a green on top, the 6th plays from the rim down into the basin, and the 7th climbs out again.

Andrew Lewis, the club's Grounds Chair in 2020, set out in 2020 what Ross changed on the front nine. Ross moved the 1st green farther west along the ridge and dropped O'Neil's short par-3 2nd; the mounds around its green are still visible. He shortened O'Neil's old 3rd, which had measured 600 yards, created new 3rd and 4th holes (a long par 3 and a dogleg-left par 4) and a new par-3 6th, and joined O'Neil's old 5th and 6th into today's 7th and his old 8th and 9th into a single longer hole.

On the back nine he largely kept O'Neil's routing. Cronin's account has holes 10 through 16 following the original layout, with Ross moving the 13th tee from the top of the hill to behind it, which made the drive blind, and changing the green sites at the 11th and 12th. His main change was the finish. O'Neil's closing holes were a par 4 and a short par 3 to a square green near today's tunnel; Ross replaced them with the long par-3 17th and the par-5 18th.

Ran Morrissett noted on Golf Club Atlas that Ross built high back knobs on some greens, including the back-left of the 11th and the back-right of the 14th, and benched the 16th green into a hillside. Across the course the greens are pushed up and most tilt from back to front.

Historical Significance

The 1931 U.S. Amateur came soon after the plan was complete, and Francis Ouimet beat Jack Westland 6 and 5 for his second Amateur title, with Bobby Jones among the spectators. The course has also held four Western Opens: 1910 (Chick Evans, an amateur, at match play), 1963 (Arnold Palmer, in a Monday playoff over Jack Nicklaus and Julius Boros), 1967 (Nicklaus) and 1970 (Hugh Royer Jr.). It hosted three Women's Western Opens, won by Helen Hicks in 1937, Joyce Ziske in 1960 and Susie Maxwell in 1965, and the 1943 Chicago Victory National Open, a wartime substitute for the U.S. Open.

Luke Donald won the 2000 Chicago Open as an amateur. Vinny Giles won the 2009 U.S. Senior Amateur, Connor Black the 2011 Western Junior, and Beau Hossler beat Xander Schauffele in the 2014 Western Amateur, when Doug Ghim's 63 broke the competitive course record of 64 set by Tom Weiskopf in 1967. The Western Amateur returned in 2026, the first big event since the 2019-20 restoration: Jay Leng beat Michael Riebe 5 and 4 in a final that ended on the 14th green.

Golfweek ranked Beverly 76th among its Classic courses and sixth among Illinois private courses in 2024, and GOLF Magazine placed it fifth in Illinois in its 2024-25 ranking. The Ross Society's directory lists it as a 1918 Ross remodel and one of the courses Ross included in the list of his work he published in 1930. Writing in 2019, Morrissett expected it to be one of Chicago's three or four finest courses and ranked its par 5s among the dozen or so finest sets in Ross's work.

Changes Since Ross

Apart from the 1932 road changes, which moved the 9th green north from its Ross site behind the 7th green, the main losses came through trees and enlarged greens. The 8th green, about a third of its present size in Ross's day, was expanded before the 1963 Western Open. A back tee and a back section of green were added at the 12th around 1980. A blind hill on the 11th was lowered in the 1950s. By 1995, Lewis said, tree planting had made the course "a boxed-in, over-treed bowling alley."

Ron Prichard's restoration began with the 14th, rebuilt as a sample for the members; the first phase, reopened in 2004, removed many trees, reshaped bunkers and recovered green surface, though Lewis says only about 70% of the recommended changes were made. A second phase from 2013 felled several hundred more trees and finished the green expansion. The third phase, with Tyler Rae, closed the course from late July 2019 to late May 2020. Photographs and aerials from about 1931 guided the work. A Ross forebunker on the 1st that had been lost over time was put back, the 1st's fairway bunkers were moved farther out, and closely mown areas were added beyond the 2nd, 6th and 18th greens. Fairways were widened by 15 paces or more, bunkers were rescaled from 1930s aerials (the first left bunker on the 2nd went from about 10 by 10 paces to 35 by 25), the knobs at the 11th and 14th were slated to rejoin the greens, the 7th green was rebuilt to Ross's height and push-up style, and all greens were regrassed with bentgrass. At the 12th, Rae found a bur oak stump under the back-left of the green that matched a tree in old photographs, and the green was rebuilt to its 1931 footprint, front-left lobe included. In 2026 Prichard told the Chicago District Golfer: "All of the original Ross elements remain. All we did was clean them up a bit."

Uncertainties

• The year Ross was engaged: Cronin's history gives 1917 for the contract; The American Golfer (June 1918) and the Ross Society directory date his plan to 1918; the CDGA and The Fried Egg give 1919. This listing follows 1917 for the engagement, 1918 for the plan and 1922 for the minutes authorizing completion.

• The 8th green: Morrissett says it was enlarged forward and McDade that the front third is Ross's. Both agree on the size change; this listing does not say which end was added.

Sources & Notes

1. The Beverly Country Club, Club History (read October 2026). https://www.beverlycc.org/Club_History O'Neil and Bendelow, Ross master plan, routing and ridge, restorations, events, caddies, 2022-23 additions.

2. Paul Richards, "Beverly Country Club," Golf Club Atlas, March 18, 2009. https://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion/beverly-country-club-2/ Auburn Park origin, Sherman Farm, 1922 minutes, 1932 changes, events from 1910 to 2000.

3. Ran Morrissett, "Feature Interview with Andrew Lewis," Golf Club Atlas, August 11, 2020. https://golfclubatlas.com/?p=35294 O'Neil course, Ross's hole changes, 1932 Evans plan, three restoration phases, 2nd and 12th holes, bur oak stump.

4. Ran Morrissett, Beverly course profile, Golf Club Atlas (2009, rewritten August 2019). https://golfclubatlas.com/countries/beverly-country-club/ Ridge and basin, 8th green history, 11th and 14th knobs, 12th bunkers, 13th tee, assessments.

5. Phil McDade and Tim Cronin, "A country club in the city," Golf Club Atlas discussion group, August 2009, drawing on Cronin's centennial history. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,41071.0.html 1917 contract, O'Neil holes kept, 9th green move, 11th hill, 13th tee, Cavvy's Corner, original 18th (page 2).

6. Matt Harness, "Back to the Bev," Chicago District Golfer, July 2026. https://magazine.cdga.org/chicago-district-golfer-article-archive/july-2026-back-to-the-bev Prichard and Rae quotes, 7,063 yards, the Western Amateur's return.

7. Western Golf Association, "Leng cruises to statement win at Western Amateur," August 2, 2026. https://thewesternamateur.com/the-latest/news/leng-cruises-to-statement-win-at-western-amateur 2026 result.

8. Wikipedia, Beverly Country Club and the champions tables for the Western Open, Women's Western Open, Western Amateur, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Senior Amateur. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Country_Club Event winners and the 2025 annexation.

9. The Reporter, "Evergreen Park annexes Beverly Country Club," April 22, 2025. https://southwestregionalpublishing.com/2025/04/22/evergreen-park-annexes-beverly-country-club/ Annexation and clubhouse renovation.

10. Greens Visited course pack: scorecard and course-tour geometry, with 2018 Cook County orthoimagery from the Illinois State Geological Survey (https://clearinghouse.isgs.illinois.edu/). Hole pars, yardages and stroke indexes; hole shapes and hazards.

11. The American Golfer, June 1918, as quoted by Paul Richards, "Thanks from Beverly CC to Tom MacWood," Golf Club Atlas, December 23, 2003. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,7486.0.html Ross's 1918 plan and its length.

12. Andrew Lewis, "Beverly CC Restoration -- 2019/2020 Edition," Golf Club Atlas, June 2020. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,68413.0.html 1931 photographs as the guide, 1st-hole forebunker, closely mown areas.

13. Donald Ross Society and The Tufts Archives, Directory of Golf Courses Designed by Donald J. Ross, January 2026 revision. https://www.rosssociety.org/resources/Documents/Ross%20Course%20List/Final%20Ross%20Directory%20of%20Courses%20Jan%202026%20website.pdf Beverly as an 18-hole Ross remodel of 1918, on the 1930 list.

14. Jason Lusk, "The best public-access and private golf courses in Illinois, ranked," Golfweek, July 18, 2024. https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/best-public-access-private-golf-100042904.html Golfweek's Best 2024: 76th Classic, sixth in Illinois.

15. "Best golf courses in Illinois 2024-25," GOLF.com, December 18, 2024. https://golf.com/travel/best-golf-courses-illinois-2024-25/ GOLF Magazine's Illinois ranking, fifth.