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Chicago Aerial: Bendelow's Masterworks Part 2: Medinah #3

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Tim_Cronin:
I'll keep this short because it's late. Harry Collis never laid a hand on No. 3. Bendelow did the 1932 redo, based on his plan from the late 1920s that was approved but not implemented before Harry Cooper scored 63 in the 1930 Medinah Open.
There's been some chatter about a Tillinghast bunker enhancement on his PGA-sponsored trip later in the decade, but the club has no evidence that Tilly did a thing (he was busy at Ridgemoor and Oak Park).
Tom: The redo was done because the club didn't have access to all the land south of Medinah Creek to Lake Street when Bendelow drew up the original. The unavailable land was slated for a housing development owned by Medinah's four founders until the membership got wind of their scam (skimming membership fees, among other things) and forced them out.

Sébastien Dhaussy:
Thanks Tim for the information on the 1932 redo.  ;)

I just read Ron Whitten article on GD : "The Major Course That Nearly Wasn't" and this article give me answers to questions I would like to ask you.

Thanks.

 

T_MacWood:
Tim
Thanks for the info. So the often told tale that Harry Cooper's 63 drove the club to redesign is false.

What is strange the club claims that 7 new holes (3, 4, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15) were contructed and 2 holes redesigned (6 & 9) in 1932. I assume those numbers are the holes from the original routing (before they altered the routing in the 80s or whenever). Those holes appear to be all over the property between the creek and Lake St....in fact the 10th (which is not among those new holes) is furtherest south and runs parallel to Lake St....perhaps they got that wrong too.

What I find interesting is Nordic Hills CC (formerly Nordic Hills, I'm not sure what it is called today) which was directly east of the club and adjacent to #3 was built in 1932 by Frank Macdonald & Charles Maddux. Macdonald & Maddux had a very distinctive bunkering style not unlike what you see in this old aerial.

Dan Moore:
This from Ron Whitten's 8/11/06 article referenced today by  Geoff Shackleford.  The article is based at least in part on Tim Cronin's 2001 club history of Medinah.  This should clear up some of the mystery.  

"1928. Two years later, the Medinah Open was contested on No. 3, which measured just 6,261 yards, par 70, a one-day event won by Harry (Lighthorse) Cooper, who shot a seven-under 63 in the second round.
 
Soon thereafter, Medinah was remodeled, with new holes carved from the 77-acre forest that the Gang of Four had intended to subdivide for profit. In the club's history, Cronin corrects a misimpression previously promoted by many, including this writer, that Cooper's 63 prompted the remodeling.

"On August 21, 1929, over a year before Cooper tooled around in 63," Cronin writes, "Bendelow presented diagrams for a redesigned No. 3 to the board of directors. It was an astonishing change, a makeover that was as brilliant as it was extensive. There were eight new holes ... [turning a] pussycat into a 6,820-yard tiger. The board approved Bendelow's concept immediately, but money was hard to come by, so implementation was delayed."

Cronin also corrects the misinformation previously circulated by this writer that Chicago golf architect Harry Collis handled the remodeling. Bendelow indeed remodeled No. 3 into what it is today. (Well, mostly. The par-3 17th and par-4 18th were added by Roger Packard in 1986 and modified by Rees Jones for this year's PGA.) The original layout had a series of tight, parallel, back-and-forth holes along Lake Street on the south end of the club's property. Those were eliminated in 1932. Among the holes Bendelow created from the forest property acquired by the lawsuit are the par-4 third and the 463-yard, par-4 fourth, perhaps the best par 4 on the course. He created the present dogleg-left par-5 seventh hole, using the corridor of his old par-4 sixth but adding a new green pad another 200 yards into the trees. He added the par-3 eighth and the par-4 ninth, the latter playing in reverse direction up a previous fairway and utilizing the green complex of the very short par-3 fifth. On the back nine, Bendelow made the par-5 10th longer by combining two holes and created the present 453-yard par-4 16th, site of Sergio Garcia's behind-the-tree heroics in 1999. (It played as the 13th back in Bendelow's day.) He also built a par-3 14th, which no longer exists, having been replaced by today's 17th, and a dandy short par-4 15th, which in 1986 was expanded into today's 605-yard 14th.

The new and improved Medinah No. 3 opened June 19, 1932. Harry Cooper returned to win the 1933 Illinois Open on the expanded par-71 layout. He also won the 1935 Medinah Open this time shooting five-over-par 289."

T_MacWood:
I wouldn't write off Harry Collis so soon, often these unexplained or undocumented attributions have some truth surrounding them.

Medinah #1, #2 and #3 were designed/built by Tom Bendelow acting for American Park Builders. By the end of 20s Bendelow was winding down his design activities...as were all architects because of the Depression (and land planners/developers like American Park Builders).

One can assume American Park Builders was engaged to remodel #3. That would explain the 1929 plan attributed to Bendelow. The only other American Park Builders golf course project I'm aware in the early 30s was Cherry Hill (1931-32)...that course was design/built by Harry Collis & Jack Darray.

Collis & Darray's involvement would explain why the aerial of Medinah #3 looks nothing like anything Bendelow designed, including Medinah #1 and #2.

By the way that is an excellent article by Whitten with Cronin's help. A very interesting story.

Here is a link:
http://www.golfdigest.com/newsandtour/2006pga/index.ssf?/newsandtour/2006pga/gw20060811medinah.html

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