Beverly Country Club, in the heart of Chicago’s South Side, will host this year’s USGA Senior Amateur Championship Sept. 12-17. The Donald Ross course has hosted several significant championships over the years, including four Western Opens and the 1931 U.S. Amateur won by the great Francis Ouimet.
For a variety of reasons, the course stopped hosting significant championships after 1970, despite its pedigree. But a major renovation led by architect Ron Prichard, and a renewed commitment by the club’s membership to hosting championships, has again put the course back in the limelight. The nation’s best senior amateurs should be well-tested by this demanding layout.
The course is divided in half by 87th Street – the front nine and pro shop on the north side of the street, the back nine and clubhouse on the south side. A narrow tunnel underneath 87th Street connects the nines. The original course, first played in 1908, was revised dramatically when the club brought in Ross to oversee a master plan in 1917. Working with two long, narrow, rectangular pieces of land, Ross designed a course viewed by many as one of his best routing works.
Course details: Beverly plays to a par of 71, with five par 3s, four par 5s, and 9 par 4s. From the tips, the course plays to 7,016 yards (rating 74.2, slope 137). It plays at 6,849 yards from the blues (73.4/135) and 6,563 yards from the traditional member’s tees (72.1/132). It also has a set of tees at 6,237 yards.
The course’s most notable feature is one the golfer can’t see – the sandy base of soil upon which the course sits. Beverly is located on land that was once part of Lake Chicago. The receding glacier left a sandy base that allows the course to drain exceedingly well, and thus it plays faster and firmer than the green fairways might suggest. One of the lake’s shorelines formed a major ridge that comes into play on the front nine, while the sandy dunes left by the receding glacier created the rolling terrain that mark several holes on the back nine.
The course is in the traditional American parkland style, with trees often framing fairway corridors. As part of the Prichard renovation, hundreds of trees were removed, opening up interior course views and widening fairway corridors. But trees still play a significant role in the look of the course, and often come into play with wayward shots.
(Information for this thread comes from the GCA “Courses by Country” review of Beverly, discussions with Beverly members at the U.S. Senior Amateur media day Aug. 12, and particularly Tim Cronin’s excellent 100-year history of the club, “Beverly’s First Century: The country club in the city.” Many thanks also to Beverly members Terry Lavin – a GCA contributor – and Steve Coates for extending an invitation to the media day and serving as wonderful hosts.)
On to the first tee (yardages from the championship, blue, and white member tees):
No. 1 (par 4, 356/356/349)
Ross suggested a course’s first hole ought to resemble a friendly handshake – not overly taxing, and an introduction of what’s to come. The 1st here fits the bill – a short par 4 with a fairway bunker short-right and another longer left. Interestingly, the hole pre-dates Ross’ involvement at Beverly, but he apparently liked it well enough to leave it as the opener.
A well-placed bunker short of the green right hides a good portion of the green, which is guarded by two deep bunkers left and another deep one right.
A classic Ross green – perched up, tilted sternly from back to front, and trouble all around, particularly long.
No. 2 (par 5, 582/550/533)
The ridge line comes into play dramatically at the 2nd; the back tee is the highest point in all of Chicago. The hole, after diving into the valley off the tee, sweeps to the left.
The golfer has to thread his way through a series of fairway bunkers to find the green in the distance.
No. 3 (par 3, 245/222/198)
A very long par 3 over flat terrain, with two bunkers left and a bunker right waiting the errant shot. This is a hole where the skilled player can run the ball up to the green. The hole plays in the opposite direction of the par 5 corridor of the 2nd – Ross managed to route only two holes in the same direction during the entire round, forcing the player to constantly account for the day’s wind direction.
A look at the 3rd green, relatively flat by Beverly standards.
No. 4 (par 4, 399/395/386)
The golfer is now in the far north-eastern corner of the property, so Ross designed a dogleg left of medium length. The fence that marks the edge of the course can be disconcerting at first glance; long hitters can easily reach it. Prichard placed a large, gathering bunker at the inside corner of the dogleg to make the golfer think carefully about his choice of clubs and line on the tee. The row houses of 83rd Street can be seen beyond the fence – one rarely escapes the sense at Beverly that you’re playing a round of golf in a distinctly urban environment.
The approach shot at the 4th. For me, the course really starts to rev up here; with few exceptions, there is rarely a dull shot, or one that doesn’t require some thought, for the rest of the round. The approach to the 4th is a demanding second shot, to a perched-up green nearly completely encircled by sand, with OB looming hard right.
No. 5 (par 4, 415/412/398)
A medium-length par 4 that plays longer than its yardage as it flows uphill the entire way. The hole ends on top of the ridge line, no doubt viewed as a perfect green site by Ross. Golfers must place their drives in the fairway if they hope to reach the green with their second shot.
The 5th green from where a solid drive might end up. Deep bunkers left and right gobble up the less-than-well struck approach shot.
The green tilts significantly from back to front; just to the left of the caddie walking off the green is a sharply slanted back portion of the green re-captured as part of the recent renovation.
A look back at the 5th – a solid par 4 that probably gets less notice than many of the course’s other two-shotters.
No. 6 (par 3, 189/181/169)
A difficult target hole, with a perched-up green surrounded on three sides by sand and a steep falloff back. One of the challenges of this hole is that the tee sits atop the ridge line, with the green in the valley below. The golfer on the tee has to make a precise stroke, but judging the wind can be difficult, as almost any tee shot will quickly soar above the tree line. Judging the wind from the flag on the green below seems to be of little help. As is often the case with greens surrounded entirely by trouble (see Lawsonia’s 7th), the green is actually larger than what it appears to be on the tee.
No. 7 (par 5, 574/561/529)
The most-photographed hole at Beverly, and one of its best. After routing Beverly’s first par 5 from the top of the ridge line to the valley, Ross routed the second par 5 from the valley up and over the ridge line. From the tips, the carry to the top of the ridge line is about 250 yards uphill; bunkers are placed halfway up the hill to catch errant drives. Yes, the ball will roll back down the hill.
If carrying the hill wasn’t a chore enough, the 7th features trees on both sides of the fairway that feel much closer than the trees framing other fairways on the front nine. It’s a hole that requires both length and accuracy.
These two bunkers, squeezing the fairway some 75 yards in front of the green, were added by Prichard to add a dimension of trouble for those going for the green in two.
No. 8 (par 4, 424/424/403)
Some of the best bunkering schemes on the course can be found on the 8th, a medium-length hole full of trouble and interest. The tee shot must be threaded between a bunker right and one farther down the fairway left.
Once past those, the golfer will be confronted with another series of bunkers, including a centerline trap for the too-bold tee shot. But the most interesting, and jarring, look is up ahead – there’s a huge expanse of green, but the pin (red flag) is tucked behind a bunker left.
Here’s the pin – placed on the front portion of a 65-yard deep green. The front third of the green is from Ross; the remaining back two-third’s was added prior to the 1963 Western Open at Beverly. Prichard left the expanded green intact.
Another look at the 8th green – with three distinct tiers, and surrounded by not one grain of sand, it’s one of Beverly’s most distinctive greens.
No. 9 (par 4, 413/410/403)
A hole that had to be adjusted following the expansion of 87th Street to a four-lane road in the 1930s. The green, originally sited by Ross to sit right behind the 7th green and next to the 1st tee, was moved north and back toward the 9th tee as part of the road project. The hole plays similarly to the 4th – a dogleg left, with a bunker guarding the inside of the dogleg.
The approach to the 9th, over flat ground.
Back nine to follow.