Photo Credit: Courtesy of of Downers Grove Park District
Scotland is known as the birthplace of golf because it is believed the sport was first played there in 1774. However, the game was not introduced to North America until the late 19^(th) century. In fact, one might be surprised to learn the nation’s first 18-hole golf course was built in Downers Grove, Ill. The legendary Chicago Golf Club was established in 1892 by a group of businessmen on the site of the current Downers Grove Golf Club. The founding father of the Chicago Golf Club was Charles Blair Macdonald, who has also been credited with having great influence in establishing the United States Golf Association, and developing golf-course architecture in the U.S.
Early in 1892, Macdonald—motivated by England's Sir Henry Wood, Commissioner General to the Chicago World's Fair—persuaded 30 of his Chicago Club colleagues to contribute $10 each to design and construct a 9-hole golf course. The site chosen was a 60-acre stock farm owned by A. Haddow Smith—a Lanarkshire golfer who had immigrated in 1890 to the U.S. from Musselburg, Scotland. When Smith heard of Macdonald's plan, he enthusiastically offered his land as the location for the new course.
Build It Bigger
The golf course was completed and ready for play in late spring of 1892. When the inaugural season ended, Macdonald convinced the club’s members to add nine more holes to the course. So, in 1893, it became the first 18-hole golf course in the U.S. By 1895, Chicago Golf Club members had become so taken with the sport that they decided to build a new 18-hole course on 200 acres located near Wheaton, Ill. The Chicago Golf Club was then moved, and is still in existence there today.