The Beverly Country Club

Favorite Hole

No. 11, 604 yards, par 5

Blind off the tee, the 11th hole kicks off Beverly’s amazing finishing stretch. This long par 5 is one of the finest in Chicago, traversing the kind of choppy land that you typically associate with seaside golf. This green is tough to reach in two, even for the longest players. The putting surface itself features a pronounced spine cutting through the middle, which places a major emphasis on finding the right section.

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Overall Thoughts

Chicago was a swamp before it was inhabited. This fact means that many of the area’s golf courses are flat, devoid of the topographical interest that forms the basis for most great golf architecture. Because of the preponderance of flat courses in Chicago, the ones that sit on excellent land stand out. Shoreacres’ ravinescape jumps to mind, as do the grandly scaled properties of Olympia Field and Medinah Course 3. Another, less heralded Chicago course with great land is The Beverly Country Club.

Beverly’s property is unique because of its history before golf. Lake Michigan used to be larger, pushing all the way to where Beverly’s course resides today. The influence of water created a kind of topography not often seen in Chicago. The front nine sits where the lake shore and floor used to be, and the back nine plays along the dunes that bordered the lake. These elevation changes and undulations give the course natural appeal.

The front nine is routed around a dramatic ridge that represents the downward plunge to the old lake floor. Starting on what used to be the shore of the lake, the first hole plays out to the edge of the ridge. It’s a simple opener that eases players into the round before they have to contend with Beverly’s myriad hazards and severely sloped greens. The second tee shot is a downhill and grand, with the skyline of Chicago visible in the distance. The fairway, sitting on the former lake floor, starts the course’s least interesting stretch of ground. Nos. 2-4 and the tee shot on No. 5 occupy strikingly flat terrain. Yet these holes are hardly dull. The third and fourth have been improved by recent renovations; the third is brutally tough, while the fourth can play as drivable, with a boundary line on the right to introduce some risk. The fifth brings players back to the lake ridge and kicks off a sequence of holes playing up and down the big landform. The front nine culminates with the par-4 eighth, which features an audacious 60-yard-long green. On the ninth, the awkward dogleg tee shot, a looming boundary line, and a small green make for an easy hole to slip up on.

Just as the lake ridge defines Beverly’s front nine, the formerly lakeside sand dunes provide the foundation for the often sublime back nine. After players take the tunnel under 87th Street, the 10th takes them from the edge of the clubhouse patio into a corner formed by the road and the train tracks. The par-5 11th is really where the back nine’s rolling terrain starts. The 12th, a short par 3, has changed massively since the 1990s, when it was spoiled by willow trees and uninspired bunkering. The new, more dynamic green has clever little nooks where pins can be tucked near menacing bunkers. The 13th starts with a blind tee shot plays over an old sand dune, and the difficult approach plays from an upslope to a green with out-of-bounds behind. The combination of lie, elevation, and out-of-bounds causes many players to come up short. The reworked par-4 14th, with its chain of bunkers along the left side of the fairway, is perhaps Beverly’s most photogenic hole. Longer players can go for the green here, but up-and-downs from around the green are tricky because of the severe back-to-front cant of the putting surface. The 15th, which tumbles over some big, wonderful ripples in the land, is blind off the tee and long, requiring two great shots to reach the green. Playing back toward the 15th tee, the 16th rises to a green nestled sideways into a knoll, allowing shots to either bounce in from the right or kick away to the left. Of Beverly’s many tough greens, none is tougher than the one on the long par-3 17th, with its tremendous back-to-front tilt. Playing short and leaving yourself an uphill chip may be wise because nothing good comes of missing long or to either side. Finally, the 18th plays back to the clubhouse and closes out the round with a nice scoring opportunity after the gauntlet of Nos. 15-17.

For decades, Beverly’s outstanding property was obscured by overgrowth, a common story in American golf. Planted trees had narrowed the playing corridors, and the fairways and greens, sitting in shade for most of the day, became much smaller over time. Beverly was claustrophobic, which is probably why this author, who is most comfortable on tight courses, had a good showing when the club hosted the state am. As much as it suited my game, I had to acknowledge that the Bev had become a monotonous test of “hit the fairway or punch out.”

By the mid-2010s, however, the club had made a lot of progress with longtime consulting architect Ron Prichard and then-associate Tyler Rae. First came tree clearing. This was a positive development, but it created some awkward visuals, with the scale of the fairways not matching the scale of the corridors. That changed in 2020 when Beverly went all-in on a Prichard and Rae restoration. Fairways and greens were expanded, and the size and character of Donald Ross’s bunkers were restored, greatly accentuating the always-strong attributes of the property.

Today, as a result of the club’s commitment to its architectural history, I consider Beverly one of the five best courses in the Chicago area, alongside Chicago Golf, Old Elm, Shoreacres, and Skokie.

1 Egg

Even in the city’s well-saturated market for Golden Age golf course design, Beverly stands out because of its fantastic property and deft design. It is the premiere course south of I-55. Recently, Beverly has transformed itself from struggling country club to thriving golf-focused club—a great hang with a walkable, excellent course. With continued tree management, it could reach two-Egg status.

Course Tour

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