Popular Chicagoland 9-holer changes names

In celebration of its 131st season, the Downers Grove Golf Club has been renamed the Belmont Golf Club to honor the history of this legendary course. Owned and operated by the Downers Grove Park District, the Belmont Golf Club was one of the Chicagoland courses featured in Golf Course Industry’s May 2022 cover.

In 1892, Charles Blair Macdonald, the grandfather of American golf, designed the first nine holes west of the Allegheny Mountains in Downers Grove, Illinois, at Belmont Road. At this original site of the Chicago Golf Club, Macdonald designed nine more holes for the course in 1893, making it the first 18-hole course in the United States. By 1895, Chicago Golf Club members decided to build a new 18-hole golf course near Wheaton, Illinois, and abandoned the Belmont location.

In 1899, Herbert J. Tweedie and a group of friends formed the Belmont Golf Club on the site. As a founding member of the Belmont Golf Club, his first major accomplishment was to keep several of the original holes of Chicago Golf Club in play after their move to Wheaton.

The location of the 18 holes in Downers Grove are most famously known throughout golf history as Belmont Golf Club, one of the original courses of the western golf association founded in 1899. The current layout of the course features six holes that have had very minor changes to them dating back to the late 1800s. The holes are referred to as the “Original Six” and include Nos. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8 and 9.

Over the last two years, the Belmont Golf Club has completed exciting improvements guided by superintendent Jeff Pozen to enhance the visitor experience. On the course, bunkers on holes 4 and 8 were reconstructed. A moveable canopy was installed on the lesson tee to create a more comfortable private lesson experience. Interior clubhouse renovations included the expansion of the pro shop plus new furniture, flooring and countertops in the dining area.

In celebration of the renaming of the course, a tournament and celebration will be held on Saturday, May 20. The event will include a team tournament followed by a dinner celebration to highlight the history of the course and the improvements the Park District has made over the years.