Remembering Calumet Country Club: A Final Farewell to a Chicago Golf Landmark
I’ve been anticipating this new at the end of each golf season since 2019, but with each passing year, I began to wonder if the day would ever come. Alas, Calumet Country Club has finally closed up shop, and with that, a piece of Chicago’s rich golf history dies with it.
For more than a century, Calumet Country Club stood as notable piece of Chicagoland’s historic golf locations. Originally designed by Donald Ross, and home to moments of genuine golf lore, it was the kind of course that quietly revealed its greatness the more you played it. And now, after years of uncertainty, stalled redevelopment plans, and rapid decline, Calumet Country Club has officially closed its doors for good.
This isn’t just another golf course shutting down. It’s the loss of a piece of local golf heritage that meant a lot more to many golfers than many realized until it started slipping away.
The Architectural Legacy of Calumet Country Club
Calumet Country Club’s roots reach back to 1901, when the club first opened at its original location. That course was an H.J. Tweedie–designed layout on land that is now part of Chicago State University. When CCC moved to its Homewood location, Donald Ross was brought in to create an entirely new layout which opened in 1920. Ross’s routing with its thoughtful greens, signature bunkering, and natural flow across the property set the strategic framework that guided Calumet’s play for the next century.
Anchoring the course was the clubhouse, which dates back to the Homewood move and still forms the core of the property today. While it was heavily expanded over the years to include banquet rooms, dining spaces, and a terrace overlooking the finishing holes, the original structure remains, quietly tying the modern property to its century-old heritage.
In the 1950s, construction of a highway carved through part of the property, forcing major changes. Architects Larry Packard and Brent Wadsworth were called in and managed to preserve an 18-hole layout. Even as holes were rerouted, shortened, or rebuilt, a substantial portion of Ross’s original routing and structures survived.
Later, restoration work by David Esler in the early 2000s honored Ross’s original intent. Esler rebuilt the greens to modern USGA standards while “recapturing” the historical edges using Ross’s drawings from 1920. He also reinstated more than 30 bunkers that had been lost over time, restoring much of the course’s architectural heritage. Unfortunately, this last-ditch effort to upgrade the course would not prove enough to ensure the club’s longevity.
Calumet Country Club’s Championship Pedigree
Calumet’s legacy wasn’t just local sentiment. It earned its place in Chicago golf history by hosting real championship golf. The club was the site of the 1924 Western Open, won by Bill “Wild Bill” Mehlhorn back when the event carried major-level weight. Two decades later, the course returned to the national spotlight at the 1945 Chicago Victory Open. Byron Nelson notched his eighth win during his unthinkable 11-tournament streak at this tournament.
Calumet also played a recurring role in shaping the region’s amateur game. It hosted the Chicago District Amateur multiple times, including most recently in 2016 and a 1947 edition won by Frank Stranahan, one of the most decorated amateurs of his era. The club later served as a host venue for the 2017 Illinois State Amateur won by Jordan Hahn, where its Ross greens, tight corridors, and demanding angles were more than capable of identifying the best players in the field.
Calumet also played a part in U.S. Open history. The course served as a sectional qualifying site for six U.S. Opens between 1934 and 1962. That competitive pedigree further cemented Calumet’s reputation as a championship-capable venue.
It’s easy to forget that Calumet once stood firmly among the Chicago area’s championship-caliber courses. And that history is part of what makes its loss sting a little more.
Goodbye, Calumet Country Club…
Calumet Country Club will be missed. I’d like to say it deserved more time, but the wheels of its demise were already turning long before going public. In many ways, it was a small miracle the course managed to hold on as long as it did. I remember playing there the first season it went “semi-private”. The conditions were significantly better, but you could still sense the metaphorical vultures circling overhead.
Over the past six years, you could see the decline taking hold and any chance at survival was non-existent. Conditioning slipping, facilities falling apart, many parts of the course looking increasingly forgotten. Every new season brought a sliver of hope that it might eek out a future, but each season really just felt closer to the inevitable.
Losing Calumet means losing a piece of Chicago’s golf identity, and one we can’t replace.
Farewell, Calumet CC.
Reliving It One Last Time
If you never played Calumet Country Club, or if you want one last look, Kris and I filmed a video of the course last season. It’s a look at what made Calumet special, even in its final years, and a way to appreciate the layout before it was completely gone.
Watch the video here:
