Old Elm Club

The only known collaboration between Donald Ross and Harry S. Colt — the two towering figures of early twentieth-century course design, one American, one British — produced this quiet masterpiece on Chicago's North Shore in 1913. Old Elm keeps its membership tiny and its profile lower, but the architecture speaks loudly enough for those paying attention.

Old Elm Club occupies a singular place in golf architecture as the only course on earth touched by the hands of both Harry Shapland Colt and Donald Ross, two of the most celebrated designers in the game's history. The story of how these two titans came to collaborate on a single property along Chicago's North Shore is as improbable as it is fascinating, and the course they left behind remains a quiet treasure of American golf. The club was founded in 1913 by a roster of Chicago's most prominent business figures. The names Armour, Schweppe, Dick, Swift, Shedd, Palmer, Field, and McCormick -- titans of the meatpacking, retail, and manufacturing industries -- peppered the founding membership list. From the outset, Old Elm set itself apart. Its initiation fee of $1,500 was the highest in the country at the time, and membership was capped at 150. No amount of money or influence could circumvent that limit; only death or resignation created a vacancy. The founders were not interested in building a social club with a golf course attached. They wanted a place devoted entirely to the game. To design their course, the founders secured the services of H.S. Colt, the English architect who had already established himself as a transformative figure in golf design through his work at Sunningdale, Swinley Forest, and other celebrated courses across the British Isles. In the spring of 1913, Colt traveled to the United States -- one of only two visits he would make to North America during his career.

During this trip he also laid out courses at the Country Club of Detroit and contributed to the early plans for Pine Valley. At Highland Park, Colt spent approximately eight days on the property, walking the gently rolling terrain along Chicago's North Shore and developing a routing that made sophisticated use of the land's natural features. For the construction phase, Colt recommended that the club engage Donald Ross, the Scottish-born architect who at age 40 was building a national reputation from his base in Pinehurst, North Carolina. During their overlapping time on the property, Colt and Ross walked the site together, confirming design details and refining the plan. The two men were paid very differently for their efforts -- Colt received $100 per day, Ross $20 -- but there was a mutual respect and collaborative spirit between them. When Colt departed to return to his extensive commitments in the United Kingdom, Ross stayed on, consulting Colt's drawings and design notes while overseeing the entire construction of the holes. The course that emerged from this collaboration carries the fingerprints of both architects. Colt's strategic vision is evident in the routing and in his use of "compulsory hazards" -- cross bunkers positioned in front of tees that he believed challenged golfers of every ability level. His bunker aesthetic, characterized by natural-appearing sand faces with torn, ragged edging that looks as though the earth has been ripped open, gave the hazards a raw, almost geological quality quite different from the manicured style common in American golf at the time. Ross's construction expertise is visible in the push-up style greens he built, which remain the original surfaces to this day, more than a century after their creation. The 17th hole stands as a particularly notable design, with right-side surrounds acting as a kick plate that feeds balls onto the putting surface -- a concept reminiscent of the famous redan principle. Old Elm measures 6,467 yards from the published tees at a par of 73, with unpublished back tees stretching the course to nearly 6,900 yards.

These are modest numbers by modern standards, but they belie the course's difficulty. The strategic demands of Colt's routing, the subtlety of the green contours, and the firm, fast conditions that the club maintains make Old Elm a far more rigorous test than its yardage suggests. For decades, Old Elm operated in near-total obscurity, its small all-male membership content to enjoy the course without seeking attention or hosting major events. Architecture historian Adam Lawrence has compared the club's ethos to that of Swinley Forest in England or Morfontaine in France -- places where the quality of the golf is paramount and publicity is actively avoided. This low profile meant that, for much of the twentieth century, the course received little of the architectural scrutiny or restoration attention that other historic designs attracted. Over time, however, the familiar pattern of slow degradation took hold. Hundreds of trees were planted or allowed to grow unchecked, gradually narrowing fairways and choking off the generous playing corridors Colt had intended. Greens shrank through decades of topdressing and conservative maintenance practices, losing their original oblong shapes and the strategic relationship between putting surfaces and surrounding bunkers. Cross bunkers that Colt had placed as integral strategic features were covered over and forgotten. The course remained excellent golf, but it was increasingly a diminished version of what Colt and Ross had created. Beginning in 2010, the club engaged architect Drew Rogers to lead a comprehensive restoration. Working under general manager Kevin Marion and with superintendent Curtis James, Rogers undertook extensive research into Colt's original plans, sketches, and design notes.

The restoration unfolded over several years and addressed virtually every aspect of the course. Hundreds of trees were removed to reopen hole corridors and restore the grand width Colt had envisioned. Fairways were widened and tees realigned. Original green surfaces and cupping areas were recovered, bringing back pin positions that had been lost for decades. Cross bunkers that had been buried were unearthed and rebuilt. In 2013, architect Dave Zinkand joined the project to lead the bunker reshaping, recreating the rough, rugged edging that defined Colt's best work in the United Kingdom. The result was a set of hazards that looked as though they had always been there -- torn from the earth rather than carefully sculpted. Bradley Klein of Golfweek praised the transformation as masterful, citing the widened playing lines, bold greens, and sharply etched bunkering. The restoration propelled Old Elm into national recognition. The club entered Golfweek's Top 100 Classic Courses list, reaching number 59 by 2023, and appeared in Golf Digest's second Top 100 ranking in May 2023. For those who have had the privilege of playing it, Old Elm offers a rare glimpse into what early twentieth-century strategic golf design looked like at its finest -- a collaborative vision from two architectural giants, carefully restored and lovingly maintained on a quiet stretch of Chicago's North Shore.