“Raynor used to sit in the tower of the Wheaton clubhouse amazed at the magnificent sweep of that wide landscape and then he went down and produced a course that exactly fitted the prairie. A fine generous sweeping course, where a man may open his shoulders and fill his lungs and hit with all his might.” (H.J. Whigham in Town & Country Magazine, 1923)
Thus began Chicago Golf Club’s transition from 1890s, Victorian-style golf architecture to the more modern strategic architecture embodied in the Golden Age golf courses, and that resulted in a course that is among the most revered designs in the United States and the inspiration for generations of American golf course architects.
Among the impediments to this transition were the anticipated costs to be funded across an intentionally small membership, as well as the club’s history as a frequent host site for USGA championships. There was no impediment or complaint, however, from the course’s original designer, Charles Blair Macdonald. The course that Macdonald laid out in Wheaton in 1895 was completed well before historic figures such as John Low and Macdonald himself openly debated what made a golf hole great, and whether the ideal course should have 18 great holes rather than just one or two. In fact, by late 1917, Macdonald pointedly told his old club: “I have long wondered when the intelligence of the Chicago Golf Club would realise that theirs is one of the worst courses in the country as compared with its former position… you have got to ‘scrap’ your golf course.”
By this time, Macdonald had built the first great American course, National Golf Links of America, where all 18 holes fit the new architectural standard. And, more importantly to this story, Macdonald had already trained his protégé, Seth Raynor, to stand among the preeminent artists of the craft. Raynor, a trained civil engineer who was originally hired by Macdonald as a surveyor, built every course that Macdonald was involved with and ultimately created a robust curriculum vitae of his own including Shoreacres, Yale, Camargo… and Chicago Golf Club.
The Prairie Raynor is the story of how the golf course at Chicago Golf Club evolved from its earliest days to Raynor’s initial plan, and how this plan evolved to his final creation. It is the story of the selfless members who personally underwrote much of the cost for the Raynor project, and the frugality that preserved Raynor’s original creation. And, lastly, it is the story of only seven superintendents who have cared for the course in its first one hundred years, and of how significant advances in agronomic science and practices have been employed to great effect.
Students and enthusiasts of golf architecture will enjoy a written and visual record of the history of golf architecture, and particularly of the Macdonald and Raynor design philosophy, as told through the story of Chicago Golf Club. The Prairie Raynor also features a unique exposition on the artistic and architectural devices used by Raynor and other architects to construct true works of art that double as a field of play. The book features over 350 photographs, many from Jon Cavalier, Andy Johnson and Jerry Rossi; it also includes original course and conceptual artwork by Don Placek and Joe McDonnell, and a biographical sketch of Raynor by Anthony Pioppi.
The Prairie Raynor ultimately serves as an architectural record of the type that is essential in ensuring that clubs remain good stewards of their golf courses.
John Moran is the club historian at Chicago Golf Club and Rand Jerris is a golf historian and former USGA director. The Prairie Raynor, published by Grant Books Ltd in 2024, is available to purchase and was recently recognised as “an outstanding work of golf literature” by the USGA, receiving the association’s 2024 Herbert Warren Wind Award.