Skokie Country Club - Illinois, U.S.A.

Skokie Country Club is not one of the better-known courses in the Chicago area, but it is one of the most interesting, both from an historical perspective and as an example of the restoration of classic design features. The course was started in the 1890s and expanded from nine to 18 holes in 1905. Donald Ross then thoroughly revised the course in 1914 and Skokie went on to host the 1922 U.S. Open, won by a 20-year-old Gene Sarazen. In the 1930s, the club sold some of its land for housing and acquired additional property south of the existing course. This led to the design of seven new holes in 1938 by theJv1idwest design firm of William Langford and Theodore Moreau, a very gifted team whose work is little-known today. Among the holes they fashioned were the third, 11th, and 12th, which incorporate the stream and lake at the south end of the property. Over the next 60 years, many of the distinctive features of the Langford/Ross design were lost or softened, but in 1999 the members adopted a bold plan to restore the course to the way it played in 1938. The back-to-the-future plan was created by Ron Prichard, an architect who specializes in classical Course restoration. Prichard brought back cross bunkers that had been removed, angled the fairway bunkers to increase the strategic options, and restored the exaggerated grass bunker walls, which are the hallmark of Langford's design, and give the course its sense of dimension. With its old-fashioned vitality restored, Skokie looks new again.

The General At Eagle Ridge Resort - Illinois, U.S.A.

The General is the newest of the three 18-hole courses at the Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena. Designed by Roger Packard and two-time U.S. Open winner Andy North, the General opened in 1997. The course is located on the edge of the Mississippi in northwest Illinois, set among limestone cliffs, valleys of wildflowers, and rolling hills dotted with oak and walnut trees, a sharp contrast to the flat terrain of Chicagoland. On the short par-four 14th, with the tee perched on a lime­stone cliff 200 feet above the fairway, there are eagle-eye views of three States-Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. The General is named for General Ulysses S. Grant, who lived in Galena, an old lead-mining town with an historic main street, before the Civil War.