PUBLISHED IN CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER

The members of Medinah Country Club have never been reluctant to order updates on their No. 3 course,  the most famous 18 holes in Chicago golf. The project that will be going on there this year, though, will go far beyond anything that has been done in the past.

Club president Williams R. Kuehn announced the latest project last December, noting that “the members voted with overwhelming approval of the Course No. 3 Master Plan.  This renovation is especially timely as the club looks forward to hosting the 2026 Presidents Cup.’’

The Presidents Cup, a team event between the best touring professionals from the United States and the rest of the World’s countries minus Europe, will be a fun event for the Chicago golf community but Medinah has already hosted much bigger things.

No. 3 was the site of the U.S. Opens of 1949, 1975 and 1990, the PGA Championships of 1999 and 2006 and the Ryder Cup of 2012.  Most recently the 2019 BMW Championship was played there as part if tge FedEx Cup Playoffs. Most all carry a higher profile than the Presidents Cup.

So, what’s this latest update all about? The complete renovation comes with a price tag of $23.5 million. Surely the club is looking far beyond a Presidents Cup, even though its spokesmen aren’t going into specifics. Kuehn’s initial announcement was just a starting point. This renovation will be followed by far more than just the Medinah membership from the time the hard work begins this fall until the first tee shot is hit in the next major event played there.

It’s been a long dryspell since the last one – the 2006 PGA Championship or the Ryder Cup, both played at Medinah — and it seems that Medinah is the only facility that has the wherewithal, the infrastructure and the enthusiasm to bring back those good old glory days.

America’s first 18-hole course was built in Chicago – by the Chicago Golf Club in 1892. The staging of the sport’s biggest events at Chicago courses were commonplace for decades after that, but that’s not the case anymore. Medinah can change that, and its members are more than willing.

Board member Ryan Potts made that clear in the aftermath of Kuehn’s announcement.

“As part of our strategic planning process we poll our membership as to what is important to them and what we, as stewards of the club, should try to accomplish,’’ said Potts.  “Our members, for better or worse, we could argue, told us they prioritize hosting championships.  We would like to host majors and desire to remain in the Top 100.’’

So the “investigative process’’ began and lasted over two years. A variety of architects were considered and OCM Golf, an Australian firm consisting of Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead, was chosen. OCM does not have a high profile in American golf, though Ogilvy did win the U.S. Open in 2006. He had not been on the Medinah premises before Kuehn made his announcement.

Only in 2020 had OCM tapped into the American market, renovating Shady Oaks – a Texas course designed by Ben Hogan. Medinah has a much high profile than Shady Oaks, and the present version of No. 3 was deemed worthy enough to host the President’s Cup. Still, Medinah went with the Australian group for the renovation.

“The PGA Tour staff all had experience working with OCM,’’ said Michael Scimo, the club’s President’s Cup chairman and former president.  “They were supportive of our choice and like the design.  All parties are on board.’’

A couple things undoubtedly weighed into the need for a major change.  Medinah members may play more times on their Nos. 1 and 2 courses but they’re proud of No. 3 and sensitive to low scoring there.  To them that suggests the course isn’t tough enough.  In the 2019 BMW Championship Justin Thomas covered the 72 holes in 25-under-par 263 that included a third-round 61 – a record on No. 3.  Enough said.

Those Golf Digest annual rankings were disturbing, too.  No. 3 was No. 60 in the most recent one after being as high as No. 11 in 2007.

Medinah members want their tournament course to be better respected. Respect comes from its position in the various rating surveys and its ability to land big championships.  Once the members are done enduring the eye sores that construction will inevitably bring they’ll have another course that they expect will be the envy of the golfing world.

This version may also be more user friendly, when played from the non-tournament tees, and more  attractive, with more of Lake Kadijah in play, if the OCM design pans out as planned. The present design has been criticized for three of its four par-3 holes being too similar.  Nos. 2, 13 and 17 all play over water.  That won’t be the case in the OCM design.

Like Medinah’s other two 18-holers, No. 3 was designed by Tom Bendelow.  It opened in 1928, four years after the Shriners established the club as one of the premier private clubs in the world. No. 1 opened in 1925 and No. 2 in 1926.

Over the years a series of architects  have been called in to improve No. 3 with Rees Jones the most prominent.  Working with co-designer Steve Weisser, Jones supervised major re-design projects in both 2003 and 2010.

Dick Nugent, in 1970, and Jones’ father Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Roger Rulewich, in the 1990s were other architects involved in work on No. 3 but OCM uncovered historical material from a visit by legendary architect A.W. Tillinghast in the 1930s that became a factor in the latest renovation plans.

The current No. 3 will remain in play this season. Scimo exected the moving of dirt will begin in October or November and work on the greens and bunkers will start in early 2023.  The course will be closed for all of 2023 with a re-opening in the spring of 2024 expected.  The Presidents Cup will be played there in September of 2026.

PUBLISHED IN CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER

So, what’s Medinah No. 3 going to look like a year from now?

According to Michael Cocking, director for the Ogilvie, Cocking Meade Golf design team, it’ll be a lot different than it has been for all the big events that have been played there over the years.

“Medinah has such an interesting history, and we’re fortunate to have some wonderful old aerials, photos and plans available,’’ said Cocking.  “With many prominent architects having been involved over the past 100 years we found ourselves finding many elements we were keen to restore, other areas we wanted to retain and perhaps just tweak a little and then there were some which we felt required a more significant change.’’

The latter come at the end of the course, specifically the last six holes. The current Nos. 13 and 17 – both par-3s over water —  will be gone and five or six holes ranging between 60 and 100 yards and a big putting green will take over some of the old course’s land along the club’s entrance road.

Here’s how Cocking envisions the last six holes looking once the renovation is completed.

No. 13 – It’ll still be a par-3, but the tee shot won’t be across the water of Lake Kadijah. The hole will play along the water’s edge and be converted to a shorter version of what it was.  The lake edge will be reshaped so water will provide a backdrop to the green and also protect its right side.

No. 14 – Half of the current hole will go.  The tee will move up to where the fairway had started and the current green will be replaced by one further back.  The hole will no longer feature a carry over water from the tee.

No. 15 – The old version, designed by Rees Jones, will disappear and No. 15 will now be a somewhat altered version of the old No. 16. That was a famous hole historically after Sergio Garcia hit an approach to the green off a tree root – with his eyes close to boot – in the 1999 PGA Championship in an effort catch eventual champion Tiger Woods.

No. 16 – Cocking says this hole will represent “the most dramatic change to the course.’’ He calls the new version a “Cape style’’ par-4 that will start from what had been the tee for the old par-3 seventeenth.  Lake Kadijah will create a diagonal hazard all the way to the green.  “It’ll be spectacular,’’ said Cocking.

No. 17 – The proposed new hole replaces both the present Nos. 13 and 17 as a short hole played over Lake Kadijah. Cocking says the new one will “far exceed the drama’’ produced at those two old holes. He said the hole could play as long as 225 yards but suggested a length of 150 or 160 would be better.

No. 18 – The new version not only opens space for construction of the short course and big putting green, it also provides an opportunity to restore an element of the original design, created by Tom Bendelow in the 1920s.  The fairway to the 18^th green will run beside the No. 1 fairway again with the hole measuring about 500 yards.  Cocking says it’ll still be a par-4 for tournament professionals but a par-5 for everyone else. That means that the course will remain a par-71 for the big tournaments but a par-72 otherwise.

Mark Stewart was still a teen-ager when – with encouragement from his father and grandfather – he started thinking about golf bag designs. His family, from Great Britain, was on vacation in St. Petersburg, FL, at the time.

“When we got home I was just curious,’’ said Stewart.  “We developed prototypes on and off for about three years.’’

During that time Stewart was earning a degree in engineering at Loughbrough University in the United Kingdom, and his curiosity expanded beyond golf bags.  He focused instead on developing what the British were calling  electric “golf trolleys.’’

There were some on the market, but not what Stewart had in mind.

“We wanted something remote-controlled, because there were some out there at the time, but they had trouble with balance and stability and the steering wasn’t very good,’’ said Stewart.

In 2003 Stewart Golf was launched and the following year its X1 Remote model was on the market. Courses across the pond were receptive to it.

“There was nothing controversial about it,’’ said Stewart.  “Ours just looked different.  Trolleys were a huge advantage for playing, but there was a huge stigma attached to it.  They were just for old guys who had a bad knee or some other disability. We were looking for amateur golfers walking the fairways, and if we could make it look different we had a chance.’’

The chance was worth taking, and paid off. Stewart Golf has sold its products in about 50 countries. The first sales in the United States were made in 2008, and they’ve since been made in every state except Hawaii and Alaska.

Initially golfers could strap their bags to Stewart Golf’s “trolley’’ and then enjoy their walks around the course without carrying their clubs. The bags could move with remote commands that a golfer would make with a hand-held device and could be attached to a belt or contained in a back pocket.

That was all well and good, but business really took off in 2015 when the “follow’’ system was launched.  That made it possible for the bag to follow the golfer, much like a human caddie would.

“It was a big change in our business, because it took us to another level,’’ said Stewart.  “It was not just eye-catching, but it was fun to watch something following someone down a fairway.’’

The present version, called the Q Follow, has a futuristic look as it follows a golfer automatically down the fairway and also has full remote-controlled functionality.  The golfer can putt out on a green, then remotely guide the trolley to the next tee without walking back to his bag.

While it takes a few holes for beginners to get the hang of using the device, it’s not a long-term problem.  We’ve tested Golf Bikes, and found them good for just more exercise, and Golf Boards, which are fun but intimidating at least at the beginning.  Neither problem existed when we received a tutorial from Stewart.

Stewart Golf made its first appearance at the PGA Merchandise Show in Florida in 2015. That was a big financial gamble — “many tens of thousands of dollars,’’ Stewart said – but this one paid off, too. His company’s bags are now promoting “Dream Machines.’’

“Everybody told us that no one walks here in America,’’ Stewart said during a stop at The Glen Club in the Chicago area. “We come from a culture in the U.K. where 98 percent of golfers walk. I’d be surprised if it was more than 20 percent in the United States.’’

So would I, but things could be changing. Credit the pandemic for that.

“Our mission statement as a company is to show people a different way to play golf,’’ said Stewart. “The experience of walking a golf course is like nothing else – it’s outdoors, you get the exercise of walking and you can be talking to friends.’’

American golfers were reminded of that when pandemic restrictions were enforced.

“Our business in America is four times what it was in 2019,’’ said Stewart.  “That’s why it’s now our biggest market, followed by the U.K. and Canada.  People were forced to walk and our demand went up.’’

The big difference is that Stewart Golf’s products in the U.S. are called “Electric Caddies’’ instead of “trolleys.’’ They’re all made at a 10,000 square-foot factory in Gloucester, a two-hour drive from London. Stewart Golf also operates out of a warehouse in Clearwater, FL.

Stewart doesn’t see human caddies, with the Western Golf Association and its flourishing Evans Scholars program thriving, or power carts as rivals.

“Caddies are a different thing,’’ he said. “Caddies aren’t at many golf courses. There’s plenty of room for all of us to play.  There’s a time and a place for riding, like when it’s hot. People point to pace of play, but walking is no slower than riding.  Some people think they play better when they walk, but that’s just in their heads.’’

“Electric Caddies’’ have one big advantage that might not be obvious to many who have not tried them.  They’re not affected by “Cart Path Only’’ restrictions. That alone improves pace of play.

Stewart Golf products are most easily purchased on line, and they cost about $2,500 regardless of the model chosen, some of which offer customized colors to match your car, golf club bag or other things. Those models will also be continuously improving.

“After the pandemic it feels like we’re starting again, but with lots more knowledge and experience,’’ said Stewart.  “We have to keep making our products better.’’