Olympia Fields back after 75 years

Olympia Fields is back on the US Open rotation for the first time since 1928 when club pro Johnny Farrell beat Bobby Jones in a play-off.
The venue for this year's 103rd US Open also saw the legendary Walter Hagen win the second of his four straight US PGA titles in 1925.

More recently, Graham Marsh won the US Senior Open there in 1997, while Jerry Barber landed the US PGA there in 1961.

The Olympia Fields Country Club, 25 miles south of Chicago, was founded in 1915 by a group of Chicago businessmen.

The consortium bought 674 acres of farmland next to the Illinois Central Railroad line and the club quickly became the largest private country club in America.

By 1925, the club had four golf courses, with plans for a fifth course in the offing.

The fourth course, designed by former Open champion Willie Park Jr, became recognized as one of the best in the world and is still ranked 30th by Golf Digest.

After World War II, the club was in financial trouble and was forced to sell half of its land.

Holes from the first three courses were combined to make the current South Course, while the number four course was renamed the North Course.

For this year's second Major, the North Course has been lengthened by 364 yards and the bunkers have been made deeper with steeper faces.

The par-70 7,190-yard course is laid out over undulating ground threaded by a meandering creek amid hundereds of native oak trees.

Despite the changes, it still retains the look and feel of a golf course from the 1920s.

Olympia Fields is also famous for its half-timbered English Tudor-style clubhouse.

Construction began in 1923 and was completed in 1925 at a total cost of $1.3m.

The design features an eighty-foot high, four-faced clock tower that has become the trademark of the club.