The history of long-gone and, in some cases, forgotten golf courses in the Chicagoland area has always intrigued me.
Some popped up overnight during the golf boom of the 1920s, then disappeared just as quickly during the Depression.
The
National Golf Review in 1939 had a star-studded rating panel compile a
list of the Top 100 courses in the world. In the No. 23 slot on that
list was Lasker Golf Course, built on the private estate of advertising
mogul Albert Lasker.
Lasker – who invented the soap opera as an
advertising medium on radio and TV – owned a 480-acre estate in
Everett, Ill., just west of today’s Lake Forest. In 1916, he became a
part-owner of the Chicago Cubs with William Wrigley. He later sold his
ad business to three employees – Foote, Cone and Belding.
The
estate was called Mill Road Farm and was bordered by Everett Road to
the north, Telegraph Rd. to the east, Old Mill Rd. to the south, and
extended about 200 feet west of where the Tri-State tollway is today.
In
1925, Lasker boldly built his golf course after being snubbed by
private clubs because he was Jewish. Lasker summoned William Flynn, the
premier golf course architect of the day, to build a par-72 course
measuring just over 7,000 yards, considered remarkably long in that era.
Very
few people outside Lasker’s inner circle ever saw the course, and no
distinctive photographs have surfaced. The only thing I could find is a
1938 aerial map from a government survey of Illinois.
Lakser Golf Club circa 1938
One thing
visible are former holes that seem to have been abandoned; a closer
look reveals as many as 20 playable holes on the property. In the
center is Lasker’s palacial 60-room manor house, 16-car garage,
greenhouses, riding stables, coach house, music hall, movie theatre, as
well as gardens and fountains.
But make no mistake – after
playing it, names like Bobby Jones, Grantland Rice and Johnny Farrell
said it was one of the best courses in America. While there were only
11 U.S. courses ahead of it on the 1939 list, Jones repeatedly claimed
he thought it was the third-best course in the country.
The
course survived less than 20 years following its 1926 opening.
Following the depression, Lasker donated the entire property to the
University of Chicago; the country manor grounds were subdivided and
sold for housing following World War II.
