Olympia Fields Country Club was founded in 1915 by a group of investors headed by prominent Chicago businessman Charles Beach. Beach found a suitable site alongside the Illinois Central Railroad line some twenty-five miles south of downtown Chicago and appointed Amos Alonzo Stagg, the legendary University of Chicago football coach, as the first President of the club. The club eventually purchased a total of twenty farms spread over a 674 acres parcel of topographically diverse land. Throughout its existence, Olympia Fields has been the Host to Champions. Its rolling fairways have accepted the shots of legends like Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. Olympia Fields Country Club hosted the U.S. Open in 1928, with club pro Johnny Farrell beating Bobby Jones in a playoff. During the summer of 2003 the golfing world watched as Olympia Fields Country Club hosted the 2003 U.S. Open Championship. The best golfers in the world played a golf course that features "tradition with a modern face." Many of the holes on the North Course are unchanged from the original Willie Park design. The course has been lengthened and the bunkers have been made deeper with steeper faces to keep up with the skills and technology of modern play, but Olympia Fields Country Club still has the look and feel of a golf course from the 1920's. The North Course stretches some 7177 yards over a topographically diverse piece of real estate with big elevation changes, a meandering creek and hundreds of native oak trees.	Farrell proudly holds the US Open Trophy saying, "I hope that I carry the title with dignity."
Golf’s Great Heritage: Olympia Fields--The 1928 U.S. Open by Bob Weisgerber Olympia Fields Country Club Golf courses that have been around for a long time seem to have a mystique not unlike a burnished patina on a favorite trophy. At Olympia Fields, important golf events have been hosted over some 86 years. Over many of those years the Western Open was accorded the status of a near-major. Tradition means a lot there. Among the 17 championship events are both men’s and women’s competitions. They include, for the men, two U.S. Opens (1928 and 2003), one U.S. Senior Open (1997), two PGA Championships (1925 and 1961), five Western Opens (1920, 1927, 1933, 1968 and 1971), one Chicago Open, two NCAA Championships, one Western Junior. For the women, Olympia Fields has hosted three Western Opens and one Western Amateur. Olympia Fields was founded in 1915 some 25 miles south of Chicago. In order to build four golf courses (a fifth was planned), the club purchased over 20 farms, involving 674 acres. Then they hired Tom Bendelow as the architect for #1 and #2, the latter with William Watson, then #3 William Watson alone. The fourth was the design product of a British Open champion, Willie Park, Jr. and it quickly became recognized as one of the top courses in the world. Golf Digest placed it at a high 30th ranking. But good times don’t last forever. Financial problems caused the sale of half the club’s land in 1945. The huge, sprawling clubhouse was kept intact. The Park design at #4 was retained and renamed the North Course. It is where most of the championships have been held and it will also be the site of the 2003 U.S. Open. Interestingly, Olympia Fields has the look and feel of an old 1920s style course, but the length is a respectable 7177 yards. There are elevation changes and lots of variety in the shot requirements. Streams, steep faced bunkers and native oak trees can cause trouble for the players. Players and championships Great players have left their mark on Olympia Fields. Walter Hagen won the PGA and the Western there. Jack Nicklaus and Sam Snead won championships; respectively, the Western and the Chicago Opens. On the women’s side, the great Patty Berg won the Western Open there. It is worth noting that in 1928 the players used wood shafts and small boys for caddies. They wore neckties, long sleeved shirts and knickers, and sported two-toned golf shoes. This was, after all their National Open and like the spectators, they dressed respectably. There were thousands of people in attendance, and they ringed the greens three deep and often stretched down both sides of the fairway. There were no ropes, but the referee made sure they stayed out of the line of play. Players were courteous during play and the crowd often erupted in cheers following outstanding shots. The course, like all courses in those days, was not manicured in the way it is today. Greens were slower with inconsistent bumps often affecting the line of play. Fairways sometimes had dry patches that made for tight lies. Rough was not cut to specific heights but varied considerably, even including weeds that abounded in the years before weed control became routine. Scores around par were good scores. The 1928 U.S. Open proved to be an upset of grand proportions. Coming in, Bobby Jones was a name to reckon with and most everyone thought he would take the trophy. Instead, Johnny Farrell, a club pro who had competed on tour, emerged the victor. It was a hard fought battle from start to finish. At the end of regulation the two were tied at 294 for 72 holes. They played a 36 hole playoff. And they played it well, Farrell taking 143 shots (70-73) and Jones 144 (73-71). Interestingly, if the match had been played at match play, Jones would have won by one-up! News reports of the day called the competition “thrilling.” It described Farrell as having “bulldog courage and a lion heart.” Of course, the same could be said of Bobby Jones, who, unlike Farrell, was not playing for prize money but for the honor of victory. The difference in the scores might have been the last four holes in the morning round, where Farrell got hot, really hot, and birdied all four of them! Or it might have been the ninth hole, which seemed to jinx Jones. At least that’s the way it looked because on this par-four hole, Jones took fives and sixes on every one of the six rounds! Astonishing! Here’s the way the play on the final playoff hole, the 18th, was reported by golf writer E. M. Adams in a publication called The Voice of the Golfer. Bobby Jones was one down at the time. Of course, there was no television, so this was a “word picture.” “Now picture this scene. A 490-yard hole slightly dog leg, the tee on a hill, well back among some large trees that hug the line of play on the left. Two large traps, one on the right, one on the left 235 and 250 yards from the tee, guard the tee shot area. A ditch crosses the fairway 365 yards out and from which the ground rises gradually to the green set back among large trees. Five thousand people were banked behind the green and lined down each side of the fairway. It had started to rain pretty hard as Johnny took up his stance to drive on that last hole. The sky was getting blacker every minute to the north and it would only be a matter of minutes before a deluge would break loose. The crowd was restless, many in the gallery had faithfully followed each shot and were envisioning another 36 hole playoff the following day. Johnny had been smiling at the seventeenth hole but when he walked out on the eighteenth tee, grim determination had replaced that grin. He drove to the rough at the right near a trap and his second shot was short in the rough on the left. Bobby had a beautiful shot off the tee, down the center. He purposely pulled his spoon shot to the green but the ball hit a spectator off the green to the left. Farrell played a great pitch from the rough that was dead on the pin and the ball stopped seven feet short of the hole. Jones’ ball had been kicked by a policeman after it had come to rest, and the U.S.G.A. permitted him to replace it. Bobby carefully sighted the line to the hole and chipped to within two feet of the cup. The gallery gasped and cheered. Bobby had made his last big effort to keep the match going and Johnny had to sink that putt to win and save another playoff. Farrell then showed that he, too, had the grit and courage that makes great men and champions. He walked up to his ball carefully studying the green, crouched down to sight the line and as he prepared to make his putt, a number of cameras broke the deathlike stillness that surrounded the green. Johnny stepped back from his ball, and requested the referee to please ask the cameramen to refrain from taking photographs until after the shot had been made. The referee spoke to the photographers, Johnny walked back to his ball, took up his stance, and without hesitating tapped it. Ten thousand eyes watched the ball roll straight toward the cup--it seemed a long time getting there--it finally disappeared from sight and the cheering that arose from the gallery paid just and due honor to one of the greatest, finest boys who has ever won the National Open championship.” Ironically, during the first 36 holes of the championship the USGA had paired Farrell and Jones along with Walter Hagen and a man named Maurice McCarthy from New York. Jones opened with a 73, three back, while Farrell had a 77. After two rounds Bobby Jones led the field with a 144. Farrell had a 151. Few would then have backed Farrell in a bet to win. But that’s golf. No different today than it was in 1928.