The weather may suggest otherwise, but the Chicago golf season is ready to tee off.
January rounds in snow and frigid weather aren’t unusual in the Chicago area but the Polar Bear Open on Sunday (JAN 4) is different. It not only brings golf diehards together at St. Andrews Golf & Country Club in West Chicago, it also marks the start of that facilities year-long centennial celebration.
St. Andrews is the oldest continuously owned and operated family golf course in Illinois and one of the oldest in U.S. The bagpipe preliminaries to the Polar Bear Open won’t end the St. Andrews’ celebration.
“There’ll be something every single month of the year,’’ said Jerry Hinckley, part of the five generations of the Jemsek-Hinckley family that has operated the facility since its opening in 1926.
St. Andrews is one of the few public courses that stays open all year-round. There’ll be drawings for prizes in each of the first three months of 2026 and those who make holes-in-one in April through July will be eligible for drawings for a car as well as travel trips in 2027. In the fall there’ll be drawings for irons and there’ll be some free golf opportunities in the last three months of the year.
Under Joe Jemsek’s guidance St. Andrews became the first public course to host a U.S. Open qualifier in 1947 and the first to offer air-conditioning and allow metal spikes in the clubhouse.
Jemsek also brought in Patty Berg, a World Golf Hall of Fame player who was St. Andrews head professional for 50 years. Ray Floyd, who had wins in the Masters, U.S. Open and PGA Championship, also represented St. Andrews as his home course early in his career.