[Ian Mackenzie]

https://www.globalgolfpost.com/featured/aussie-makeover-of-medinah/


And this gig was apparently "won" entirely via Zoom. WOW!!


"It is believed that Medinah’s committee was unhappy with the way their course was plundered by the players during the BMW Championship in the 2019 PGA Tour playoffs. Justin Thomas won with a score of 25-under par, while Patrick Cantlay (-22) and Hideki Matsuyama (-20) also gorged on the birdie-fest in conditions that were soft and conducive to good scoring. Despite Medinah’s formidable length, which can stretch to 7,613 yards, the pros made a mess of the place, with an average score for the week of 69.92.[/size]The feeling among the club committee was, enough is enough. It was time to restore Medinah to its rightful place among the country’s elite courses. Medinah had been ranked as high as No.10 in Golf Digest’s top 100 US courses. But that was in 1990. By 2019, it had slipped all the way down to No. 53 despite hosting five majors and the 2012 Ryder Cup."

[Niall C]

Ian

Interesting. The driver for the club seems to be too make the course harder or more of a test, however you wish to phrase it, but clearly they aren't happy with the winning score at the recent tournament. The other driver seems to push the course up the rankings.

I'll be interested to hear how they intend to accomplish that. I note the mention of old aerials etc being used in the presentation. Was the course so much harder before ?

Niall

[Carl Rogers]

I wonder what will.be done to hole 18.  It seemed like it is too short or too odd or just not good enough ..... or it just seemed that way.

[Tim_Cronin]

Club members approved this today. Eager to see a plan, but some information about the changes has been relayed to me. It appears the par-3 13th (the original 17th) and 17th are goners. I've written what I know so far on my website, www.illinoisgolfer.net.

[MCirba]

Love Geoff but why does it feel like this is the 10th re-do of #3 in the past 20 years?

[Tim_Cronin]

Love Geoff but why does it feel like this is the 10th re-do of #3 in the past 20 years?

You're close.
The 1986 rerouting by Roger Packard created new 14th, 17th and 18th holes.
In 1998, the club brought in Roger Rulewich to shove Packard's new 17th 30 yards up the hill and into the trees.
In 2004, the club brought in Rees Jones to effectively recreated the Packard 17th green.
In 2009, Jones came up with the new 15th with a pond to the right of the drivable green, plus some other green tweaks.
Now, here come the bulldozers again. Considering the original revamping by Bendelow in 1932 of his original 1928 layout (new land became available), and a small revision to the original 18th by Larry Packard in 1969, this is Medinah 3.7 coming up.

[Peter Flory]

I'm very curious to see their plans and have a lot of confidence that it will end up being more fun and interesting when they are done. 

[JR Potts]

I've been working on the project for the last two years.  Andy likely has the best summary out there right now - but if I were more technologically savvy, I'd post the full plan. But, this is a good start.


https://t.co/jSjYzPxpMu


Ryan

[Peter Flory]

Beautiful renderings by H|K. 

[Jerry Rossi]

I've seen and read through the master plan and the changes look good to me. However, I'm curious how a course can be great if it needs 1/3rd of it blown up and completely redone?  It either was great and you bring it back to what it was by doing a restoration or it wasn't great and you basically change most of it and then re-evaluate.  I constantly hear that #3 is great but then at the same time they're doing this.  Nobody looks at the Mona Lisa, says it's great and then decides to paint over it in order to make it better.

[Peter Flory]

Do you think that it is great?

[JR Potts]

Do you think that it is great?

Would Medinah be doing this work if they thought it was Mona Lisa great?   

[Dave Esler]

JR,
Very Hearty Congratulations!!


Anyone who has been through what you, your Committee, Staff, and Board has over the past several years deserves a big pat on the back.


DE

[Tim_Cronin]

Not that anyone here asked for it, but there's a nine-page special issue of Illinois Golfer with the master plan, proposed scorecard, renderings from OCM and H | K and a hole-by-hole analysis now at www.illinoisgolfer.net


One-stop shopping if you're looking for info. Merry Christmas (and every other holiday) to all!

[V_Halyard]

Do you think that it is great?

Would Medinah be doing this work if they thought it was Mona Lisa great?   

This is a blissfully crisp summation right here.

[Steve Lapper]

Decades ago I lived in Chicago and was fortunate enough to play Medinah #3 dozens of times. A few years back, I was in Chicago and offered up an opportunity to play it again. Nah, no thanks. We instead headed to Wrigley Field.


It was long, difficult, and beyond the few holes crossing Lake Kadijah and a handful of well-sloped greens, relatively featureless. We played #3 mostly because of its competitive history and the club's pride in hosting events. Other guests in our group always wanted a crack at this brute of a course. Much like the past version of Baltusrol Lower, it was a slog and monotonous. Walking off the 18th, the routing to the bar was far more attractive than back to the first tee....each and every time!


A hearty congratulations to those at the club who championed this move to bring OCM on to restore/remodel #3. Like the well-received reworking of #1 years back by Tom Doak, a renewal of strategic interest and playability on #3 will be a huge win for the club and its membership. The club's pride will legitmately swell again when this work is done. Whether or not it is validated by the USGA won't matter a whit. The PGA will probably leap at the chance to bring another Championship or Ryder Cup to Chicagoland...if that's what the club wants.


Unless it's a bleacher seat for a Yankees v. Cubs that day in 2024 or 2025, it'll be a no-brainer to race to Medinah to see #3.

[JR Potts]

Not that anyone here asked for it, but there's a nine-page special issue of Illinois Golfer with the master plan, proposed scorecard, renderings from OCM and H | K and a hole-by-hole analysis now at www.illinoisgolfer.net


One-stop shopping if you're looking for info. Merry Christmas (and every other holiday) to all!

Nice article Tim, but you could have called me for a better quote. 


However, while the plummeting rankings and even lower scores were a consideration in the plan, the short-term and medium-term capital expenditures the Club was going to need to incur (new drainage due to surrounding development, irrigation replacement, cart path restoration, forward tees, bunker restoration, etc.) was more of a driver to taking a fresh look at what was out there.  It didn't make a lot of sense to spend 50% of new project cost to put things back exactly they way they are, faults and all, without an option of what it would look like to go all-in and solve all of our problems at once (design, infrastructure, tournament operations, etc).  An all-in project wasn't the goal at the beginning, but it pivoted to that when it became apparent that there was no phased or partial project that would accomplish our objectives.


Hopefully this is the last change for a long long time.

[Matthew Rose]

Surprised the membership is letting them eliminate the 13th (old 17th), although the replacement is essentially the same hole in nearly the opposite direction. I like that it is reverting to #17 again, with the original 18th corridor being re-established but the tee across the lake. I always was under the impression the original 18th is what motivated the 80s re-routing in the first place.

The new 13th is the most interesting looking hole to me; it appears to be a very short par 3 with the lake sort of right and behind. Three par-threes playing directly over Lake Kadijah was probably overkill.

[Jerry Rossi]

Do you think that it is great?

Would Medinah be doing this work if they thought it was Mona Lisa great?   

No I don't think the club would be doing this if it thought it was great as is - clearly.  I was referring to the general perception that 3 is a great course, and regardless of what I think, the fact that it's being completely redone shows that it clearly was over-rated.  I'll admit that most of my feelings are based on the rankings.  I should have been more clearly regarding who thinks it's great. 


As I said in my initial comment, I think these changes all look very good and will clearly help the course get better (IMO) and be beneficial for the club.

[Peter Pallotta]

Not that anyone here asked for it, but there's a nine-page special issue of Illinois Golfer with the master plan, proposed scorecard, renderings from OCM and H | K and a hole-by-hole analysis now at www.illinoisgolfer.net
One-stop shopping if you're looking for info. Merry Christmas (and every other holiday) to all!

Tim, thanks much for the interesting content & details; but I also wanted to compliment you on the fine writing and layout of an excellent edition. It was a pleasure to read (what reads like) old school professionalism.

[Jeff Schley]

Not that anyone here asked for it, but there's a nine-page special issue of Illinois Golfer with the master plan, proposed scorecard, renderings from OCM and H | K and a hole-by-hole analysis now at www.illinoisgolfer.net


One-stop shopping if you're looking for info. Merry Christmas (and every other holiday) to all!

Nice article Tim, but you could have called me for a better quote. 


However, while the plummeting rankings and even lower scores were a consideration in the plan, the short-term and medium-term capital expenditures the Club was going to need to incur (new drainage due to surrounding development, irrigation replacement, cart path restoration, forward tees, bunker restoration, etc.) was more of a driver to taking a fresh look at what was out there.  It didn't make a lot of sense to spend 50% of new project cost to put things back exactly they way they are, faults and all, without an option of what it would look like to go all-in and solve all of our problems at once (design, infrastructure, tournament operations, etc).  An all-in project wasn't the goal at the beginning, but it pivoted to that when it became apparent that there was no phased or partial project that would accomplish our objectives.


Hopefully this is the last change for a long long time.

Equivalent to GCA porn.


I would quiver to think part of my assessment is paying for a smoother Devil’s Chariot highways.

[Tim_Cronin]

Not that anyone here asked for it, but there's a nine-page special issue of Illinois Golfer with the master plan, proposed scorecard, renderings from OCM and H | K and a hole-by-hole analysis now at www.illinoisgolfer.net
One-stop shopping if you're looking for info. Merry Christmas (and every other holiday) to all!

Tim, thanks much for the interesting content & details; but I also wanted to compliment you on the fine writing and layout of an excellent edition. It was a pleasure to read (what reads like) old school professionalism.

Peter, thanks kindly. It was a rush to finish by midnight so I didn't have to go through and change all the folios! Old time deadline pressure.

[Ben Stephens]

Looks interesting re changes and they are proposing to remove the steel retaining walls by the lake which was one part that made no.3 stood out in appearance 

[J_ Crisham]

Not that anyone here asked for it, but there's a nine-page special issue of Illinois Golfer with the master plan, proposed scorecard, renderings from OCM and H | K and a hole-by-hole analysis now at www.illinoisgolfer.net


One-stop shopping if you're looking for info. Merry Christmas (and every other holiday) to all!

Nice article Tim, but you could have called me for a better quote. 


However, while the plummeting rankings and even lower scores were a consideration in the plan, the short-term and medium-term capital expenditures the Club was going to need to incur (new drainage due to surrounding development, irrigation replacement, cart path restoration, forward tees, bunker restoration, etc.) was more of a driver to taking a fresh look at what was out there.  It didn't make a lot of sense to spend 50% of new project cost to put things back exactly they way they are, faults and all, without an option of what it would look like to go all-in and solve all of our problems at once (design, infrastructure, tournament operations, etc).  An all-in project wasn't the goal at the beginning, but it pivoted to that when it became apparent that there was no phased or partial project that would accomplish our objectives.


Hopefully this is the last change for a long long time.

Ryan,
   Best of luck with the #3 project. In full disclosure I always enjoyed the existing #3. I thought it was a very fair but difficult course for us non tour players. My observation is that over the last 10 years your membership has really embarked on improving the entirety of your club . I have always felt Medinah was the # 1 family club in Chicago. Your amenities are the way life should be. The club's willingness to host the BMW and other high profile events has kept Chicago on the tour radar. Happy to have you over at Bev when you are shut down.

[SL_Solow]

Tim,  I thought I received all things about golf in Chicago.  How do I subscribe?  Still waiting to play


  Shel

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