RYDER CUP: 10 things to know about Medinah
1) BRITISH INFLUENCE
Scotsman Tom Bendelow is responsible for all three courses at Medinah. No.1 opened in September 1925.
2) MEDINAH EXPANDS
Within a year, No.2 course was completed and by 1928, No.3 was finished. It was originally designed for Medinah’s ladies and was redesigned just three years later.
3) RECENT REDESIGN
Rees Jones made his own modifications to the No.3 course in 2003, with extensive work carried out on 11 greens and six others being re-surfaced. The 15th, as we saw on the previous page, has been revamped.
4) MAJOR HERITAGE
Medinah has staged three US Opens – in 1949, 1975 and 1990 – and two PGAs (1999 and 2006) as well as the 1988 US Senior Open Championship.
5) TIGER’S LAIR
Europe beware – Woods has won both the PGAs staged at Medinah. In 1999 he saw off the charging Sergio Garcia and in 2006 was too good for final-round playing partner Luke Donald.
Europe beware – Woods has won both the PGAs staged at Medinah. In 1999 he saw off the charging Sergio Garcia and in 2006 was too good for final-round playing partner Luke Donald.
6) EUROPEAN DROUGHT
It’s not been a happy hunting ground for players from this continent; in 1990, 45-year-old Hale Irwin edged out Nick Faldo by a shot to become the event’s oldest winner of America’s national championship.
7) THE FOUNDERS
Medinah was the creation of a group of Shriners from Chicago’s Medinah Temple
8) CLUBHOUSE ETHOS
Richard G Schmid, a Shriner and an architect with a flair for Italian and oriental architecture, designed the clubhouse. The rotunda and murals were the work of another club member, Gustav A. Brand, a German-born artist. The clubhouse was refurbished in 1997.
9) HIGHS AND LOWS
In the late 1920s, Medinah was flourishing with 1,500 members. But the Great Depression changed that dramatically and led to the club eliminating the requirement that only Shriners could join in a bid to expand its diminishing numbers.
10) WAR STORY
World War II brought more economic misfortune; Course No.2 was closed, and for a time members helped maintain the remaining two. The end of the war brought slow recovery before, in 1949, Major championship golf arrived at Medinah.
