Club History

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Located just 10 miles from the Chicago Loop, Beverly Country Club is the ideal venue for Chicagoland residents and their families who are seeking a relaxed, golf-focused club experience in close proximity to downtown Chicago.

From its inception, Beverly was recognized as a championship course, a distinction that still resonates over one century later. George O’Neil, the club’s first golf professional, is credited with laying out Beverly’s original golf course, reportedly with the assistance of well-known golf course architect, Tom Bendelow.
 
Beverly’s mark on American golf was firmly made when club officials decided to ask legendary architect Donald Ross to create a master plan to renovate the course and bring it back up to major championship standards. The genius of Ross’ work lies in the remarkably elegant routing of the golf course, in which no two consecutive holes run in the same direction, despite the fact that the course is laid out within a perfect rectangle that is bordered by three arterial streets and a railroad line. Ross made excellent use of the dominant geological feature of the property: a prominent ridge that runs from behind the fifth green eastward through the promontory above the second fairway, which had been part of the southern shore of prehistoric Lake Chicago, a forgotten body of water that deposited sand dunes along Beverly’s back nine.

In 2002, a dedicated group of Beverly members led the club through a restoration of the golf course under the expert guidance of the nationally known golf course architect, Ron Prichard, that reclaimed many of the Donald Ross features that had been lost over the decades. Partnering again with Prichard and his associate Tyler Rae, another passionate group of members of BCC joined together to rejuvenate the course with a Master Restoration Project that commenced in August of 2019. The expansion of the greens, fairways and bunkers along with the re-grassing of the greens and various other elements to the project were completed in June of 2020 leaving an even more incredible and competitive course in it wake to accommodate the Club’s flourishing membership that maintains respect for the historic Donald Ross architectural standard. Additionally, BCC underwent a project to add a short Par 3 course, a Himalayan putting green and worked to enhance our short game practice area and long range during our 2022 season to open for full use in 2023. With its spectacular golf course stretching beyond 7,000 yards, Beverly has resumed its rightful position among Chicago’s great championship tests and has been honored as one of Golfweek’s Top 100 Classic Golf Courses in the United States countless times.
 
Over the years, Beverly has been the host of four Western Open championships (1910, 1963, 1967 and 1970) and one U.S. Amateur championship (1931). Beverly also hosted the 1943 Chicago Victory National Open Championship, a wartime substitute for the National Open. Championship golf returned to Beverly in 1999 when the rejuvenated Chicago Open came to the South Side for a three-year run, with PGA Tour star Luke Donald winning in 2000. More recently, Beverly has hosted the 2009 U.S. Senior Amateur, 2011 Western Junior and the 2014 Western Amateur tournaments.
 
If one can correlate the strength of a course’s champions to the strength of the course, Beverly is a true test of golf. Its champions include legends like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans.
 
The Beverly Country Club has a long and storied relationship with the Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholars Foundation. Beverly proudly boasts the most Evans Scholars recipients in America. Its Members would like to thank all of the caddies who have displayed such tireless dedication and hard work over the years, making our program as fine as any in the United States. Members and guests are required to use caddies whenever they are available.