Welcome To Olympia Fields Country Club
Unfortunately for some of you, this is not a gambling blog about who will win the BMW or finding the value in Top-40 props or anything of that nature. Even if it was, they already tee'd off so it wouldn't matter and besides, touting 2nd-hand golf picks is below me. So let me clearly say up front that I'm not here to talk about The Field (Maybe a little a bit.) or matchups or swing speed or any of that stuff.
Instead I want to talk heavy Golf Course. I want to talk local venue. This is in my fucking wheelhouse. When the BMW comes to Olympia Fields Country Club, you can pretty much guarantee a 9.3 Carl or better. The intersection of my passions here is pretty remarkable:
As such, I want to spend some time today talking about this weekend's course. It's the semifinals for the FedEx Cup which I guess is a big enough deal but really I'm more fired up that Chicago's center stage in the golf world for a weekend. We're usually good for 1 of those every other year.
In this case, we're at Olympia Fields Country Club so let's dig in to the TRADITION.
Lol just kidding. We're going to start with Tiger because I'm not an idiot. I know what the people want. Olympia Fields (North) is home to one of Tiger's most preposterous career shots, a sliced fairway wood out of the rough 250 to about 15 feet:
So before anything else, there's your historic Tiger moment. Now let's back out to 30,000 feet.
Olympia Fields is about 25 miles south of Chicago in what I would describe as the best pocket of golf across the city. Within a 5 mile stretch there's: Floossmoor, Ravisloe, Calumet, Idlewild & Olympia. Some have lost their touch over the years (RIP Calumet), but the general density of quality golf course is still unrivaled.
Calm down northsiders
The area itself is cool because the history of the community is literally built around these golf courses. And I mean literally built around them: there's an entire railway line from the early 20th century with multiple stops that will drop you steps from all of these courses. That's how good the golf is. The guys 100 years ago liked it so much they invested in dozens of miles of capital infrastructure.
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Outside of proximity though, there's really nothing OFCC has in common with any of those places. Or really anywhere else in Chicago except for maybe Medinah and that's primarily because of the two courses. Notably, Olympia is one of the only facilities/clubs in the country with two separate courses in the Golf Digest Top 100. Just an all-time mushroom stamp for old boy country club arguments around town. Like yeah Skokie is in that sick little neighborhood and has the best par-sequencing possibly ever. You'll never step foot at Indian Hill or Lake Forest Whatever because they're literally just Too Nice for people like us. I'm well aware that there are more luscious, expensive, exclusive clubs in the area and across the world.
But pound for pound you cannot find a better combination of championship golf in Chicago. I said it. If this place was in the Western or Northern Suburbs, it would be a $150k initiation with a blood-oath waitlist. I know I'm getting some emails tonight. I don't give a fuck. I've seen what I need to see. I've said what I needed to say. You know where this place fits in so let's get to where the big boys will be playing this weekend.
Let's get to the North Course.
North Course is par 70 which is atypical, with only two par-5's that register as the 4th and 5th handicap respectively. The slope is 150 with a 76.6 rating, slightly easier than TPC Boston, which yielded a -30 to Dustin Johnson last weekend. And as I type this I realize I'm going to piss off a lot of golf hardos with my linguistics but so be it. I'll do my best to meet your unbelievably high standards. If I sound like an asshole, it's not on purpose.
Some previous tournaments on the track
- 2003 US Open won by Jim Furyk
- 2015 US Amateur won by Bryson DeChambeau
- 2017 Women's PGA
- 1968-71 Western Open
- 1961 PGA
Style:
I wish I knew what that meant more, but basically my understanding is that what you see is what you get. There really are no gimmicks on the North Course. It's literally one beautiful traditional championship hole after the other. I know that sounds sappy and generic but that's how this plays. There's no island green. Really no blind shots (maybe #3's tee). There's an occasional creek but essentially no water hazard threat. Bunkering is gorgeous but not overwhelming. The greens are obviously better than anything you'll ever play on but there's none of that goofy shit you see on the West Coast. From a general theme and style standpoint, you're looking at a 94mph 4-seam fastball. You can handle it or you can't.
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To that effect, you're going 625-467-461 to start your round. There's no need to throw offspeed when you bring that kind of championship yardage out of the gate. #2 has a little dogleg but nothing that forces you into the middle of the fairway. #3 has a remarkably elevated BUT FAIR green. The tee shot is kind of blind but maybe not really when you're playing it from 461 and not 362 like the regular member tees.
Scorecard (I'm Aware I'm Not Good But Jake & I Won The Scotch Game +176)
The best birdie opportunities on the front are 1-5-6 in that order with 5 being a drivable par-4 that will get absolutely beat to shit this weekend followed by a lovely downhill par-3 6th that they should eat alive at 187 yards. (I know we're changing the yardages and shit I'm just going off the official yardage book and personal experience.) Honestly if you're walking into the halfway house for a dog with a 32, it's because you started -3 on the first 6. After that it gets into a slugfest 7-10.
Back 9 is a little shorter because there's no 280 yard par-3's. One notable change is they were going to swap 9 and 18 for the tournament because it sets up better for the stands. But ultimately because no fans, they're keeping the original layout. That's an advantage to the huge hitters because the par-4 18th has a juicy fucking green if you can knock it out there.
Hole #14
By the looks of that caption, if you really want to know this place by each hole, go check out their instagram. Otherwise I can just sum up #14 as the best 14th hole in America. At least that's what everyone who ever puts these kinds of rankings together says. It's got a double creek cross with an uphill approach shot and even cooler you feel like you're alone in the universe on the teebox. Hard feeling to describe but if you talk OFCC you have to shine #14 on the North. Absolutely fucking gorgeous.
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Other Shit:
That rough is 6 inches. That's the best defense Olympia can throw up there, and it seems pretty fucking outrageous. Especially around the greens. It's basically the only chance the scores are worse than around -22 come Sunday evening. That and the greens, which are made of some kind of grass I have no fucking clue about. Bent something. Bermuda harvest. Pineapple express. Everyone keeps saying it will come down to the rough & the greens. So here I am repeating it. Watch out for the rough this weekend!
Miscellaneous:
- Writing about golf is exhausting I could use 18 right now
- It's really cool that Chicago has a course that can host this kind of event. Like OFCC is a place made up of people who have made themselves. No disrespect to Conway Farms or the family behind Bunker Hill or anything. I'm just saying the blue collar nature of the members while still being an unreal facility is something that probably doesn't happen across this country much less city. That's the charm of being south of Madison in this town. Just a different spectrum of character and it's embedded in the place.
- Locker room is LITERALLY the largest locker room of any kind in the United States, which is kinda cool and funny
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- South Course deserves its own blog but I'll stop here for now and just say it's a much more nature-based course. There's some really unique holes you would never get on the North's championship layout.
- Personally I have it as my #1 course in Chicago but I also confess I have major bias for anything South in this city.
- I came this far so I might as well guess that DJ wins. Or Bryson. One of those 2 because the mishits into greens will be the difference and it's a lot harder to mishit a green from 47 yards. I know they already tee'd off and nobody gives a damn. But I like those 2 guys to win it.
Thanks for stopping by this extremely long-winded, proud blog about a country club I don't belong to. I know I don't know exactly what I'm talking about but it's important I give OFCC the love it deserves. So fucking cool that we have the best golfers in the world for the weekend competing their balls off. Lame or not, this shit makes me happy.