Old Elm Club

Old Elm Club opened in 1913 in Highland Park, Illinois, and holds a special place in golf design history. The English architect Harry S. Colt laid out the course during one of his rare visits to the United States, staking the plan on site over about a week, while Donald Ross, then still building his reputation, oversaw construction from Colt's drawings and notes. The result is a walkable parkland course whose greens are still described as the "original push-up style surfaces that Ross built in 1913." Old Elm is famous as one of fewer than two dozen men-only clubs in America. Notable features include a shared double green serving the 6th and 17th holes and a Redan-style 17th. A restoration led by architect Drew Rogers, completed around 2013, cleared hundreds of trees and recovered the layout's original width and strategic bunkering.