Olympia Fields Country Club North Course
Sometimes people, service, or extraordinary happenings can take an ordinary place or event and elevate it into a memorable experience. Think about where you had your hole in one if you had one, it may have been on a crappily designed par three on a ragged muni but it will always be memorable to you. Think about a favorite server who elevates a nice meal into an awesome experience. Now take memorable people and service and mix in a world top-rated golf course like Olympia Fields and you have something really, really special.
The North course here, in and of itself, is a great parkland style course with outstanding conditioning, beautiful rolling hills and water features on several holes. Unlike some courses (TPC Sawgrass comes to mind) where the water hazards punch you in the face, here they complement and never overwhelm the design. Whether it’s a meandering creek that comes into play on five holes or a pond off the ninth green and tenth tee, water is a strategic element of playing the hole not THE entirety of the hole’s features. Three and fourteen are my favorite holes (both pictured below). On three you have to cross the creek on your approach and on 14 you need to avoid it on the drive and approach. The course has championship golf pedigree, with Pennsylvania’s own Jim Furyk winning the 2003 US Open here. It really is a great course.
However, the course is bested only by the experience. Start with the clubhouse. I believe it is the largest clubhouse in the world. It has the iconic clock tower and a locker room that is bigger than an airport hangar.
Then comes the people. We pulled in and the bag drop assistant greeted us, saw our bag tags as he grabbed them out of the car and said, “Oh you guys are our guests from Philly to play the North Course today. Welcome and let me introduce you to the locker room attendant who will escort you through the clubhouse to your lockers today.” The locker room attendant would put any Ritz Carlton employee to shame. He stayed with us as we checked in at the pro shop – after introducing us by name as the guests from Philadelphia to the pro who had a Philly connection we chatted about. Then as he was guiding us by the grill room, asked if we wanted a drink. Of course, we said “sure bloodies” and started for the door and he said don’t worry about it, they’ll bring them to you. We walked by a table of breakfast sandwiches that he said, help yourselves. Then took us to our lockers.
The starter then was equally gracious and everyone was very proud of the course. After the round our locker room host left us a coffee table history book of Olympia Fields in our locker and after changing and cleaning our shoes, guided us back to the grill where the bartender also chatted us up and gave us the five-star treatment. We asked for some restaurant recommendations and they made suggestions (brought in some members for connections) and made reservations for us. My brother and I finally cried “Uncle” we’ll join! I may forget some great golf holes and my scores or other things about the courses I’ve played but I will never forget the treatment we received at Olympia Fields.
I am in Chicago pretty frequently and Gibson’s is hands-down my favorite steakhouse in the world. So on this trip I brought my nephews, my girls, brother and sister-in-law so we could all try Gibson’s and have Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in the City. BTW my steak snob nephew agrees that it is number one! You’ll see in the photos below we did a pretty good job with the Ferris Bueller thing. Of course, the French restaurant doesn’t exist so if you’re gonna do the Ferris thing, go to Gibson’s, Shaw’s (seafood where the Olympia guys sent us and we ran into Jesse Jackson), or Volare for Italian instead. Of course you need a Lou Malnotti’s pizza stop too (though some will tell you Giordano’s or some local hole-in-the-wall is better).
Golf Scrapbook 