Bob O'Link Golf Club

Donald Ross built the original in 1916, then C.H. Alison reimagined it in 1925 with refined bunkering and British strategic principles applied to the Skokie River floodplain. A 2014 renovation by Jim Urbina stripped away 700 trees to restore Alison's intended openness, and today Bob O'Link plays as a rare North Shore course where two Golden Age masters left their marks on the same ground.

Bob O'Link Golf Club was established in 1916 in Highland Park, Illinois, on Chicago's affluent North Shore. The original 18-hole course was designed by Donald Ross, who created a layout befitting the gently rolling terrain along the Skokie River floodplain. The club quickly became a fixture of the North Shore social scene and attracted a membership of prominent Chicago families who valued its combination of challenging golf and understated elegance. In 1923, the club acquired an additional 36 acres of adjacent land and hired the renowned English architect C.H. Alison — partner of Harry Colt in the firm of Colt & Alison — to redesign the course.

Alison's new layout opened for play in 1925 and represented a significant evolution of the original Ross design, with more strategic bunkering, refined green complexes, and a routing that took full advantage of the expanded property. While only a few of Ross's original greens survive, Alison and Colt were faithful to Ross's thematic vision, creating a seamless blend of British strategic principles and American parkland golf. The course historically faced drainage challenges due to its location on the Skokie River floodplain. The harsh winter of 2013-14 dealt a severe blow, resulting in eighty percent turf loss on six greens and damage to all eighteen, forcing the club to confront the underlying infrastructure that had long limited playing conditions. In response, the membership approved a comprehensive renovation program called the Centennial Initiative — a $10 million overhaul designed to address drainage, irrigation, turf quality, and the accumulated tree canopy that had grown to choke the Alison design over decades.

The club engaged Jim Urbina — co-designer of the Old Macdonald course at Bandon Dunes and the architect behind restorations at Pasatiempo and Yeamans Hall — to lead the project. Urbina removed approximately 700 trees and transplanted 40 others to strategic positions, dramatically improving turf conditions and restoring the open, strategic character that Alison had intended. The renovation also replaced Poa annua with bentgrass throughout, installed a new irrigation system, and rebuilt green complexes to restore Alison's original contours and playing character. The project was completed in 2016 and represented the most significant work undertaken at Bob O'Link since Alison's 1925 redesign. The Centennial Initiative brought Bob O'Link's design back into alignment with its Golden Age roots.

Reviewers and course analysts who visited after the reopening noted that Urbina had succeeded in recapturing Alison's trademark emphasis on approach play and green-side strategy — qualities that the overgrown conditions had obscured for years. The course measures 7,247 yards from the championship tees and plays to a par of 71, a configuration that reflects the strategic rather than purely punishing philosophy of the Colt & Alison design tradition.