The Prairie Raynor

2024 Herbert Warren Wind Book Award  Chicago Golf Club is among the most historic clubs in the United States, dating to its founding in 1892. The club was one of the five founding members of the United States Golf Association and has been the host for ten national championships and two Walker Cup matches. The club’s Wheaton course is an essential element in its long history, dating back to May 30, 1895, when play began on a course laid out by the club’s founder, Charles Blair Macdonald.

During and after World War I, Chicago Golf Club faced an existential crisis created by a declining membership and the ongoing degradation of the club’s golf course. These crises challenged the club’s reputation and threatened its continuing aspirations to be a premier championship site.

In response to an inquiry in 1917, Macdonald instructed his old club to “scrap” its golf course and sent his talented protégé, Seth Raynor, to develop a new golf course in keeping with the latest design philosophies. A small group of members, the Casabiancas, agreed to underwrite much of the construction of Raynor’s course, enabling the club to initiate the project in 1921.

Immediately upon his arrival in Wheaton, Raynor was inspired by the wide, open landscape. He sat in the club’s clock tower staring out at the old course and swelling prairie, ultimately producing “a course that exactly fitted the prairie. A fine generous sweeping course, where a man may open his shoulders and fill his lungs and hit with all his might” (H.J. Whigham).

The Prairie Raynor is the authoritative story of the creation and stewardship of Seth Raynor's creation at Chicago Golf Club, written to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the opening of Raynor's course in 1923. The book includes more than 350 images (and 350+ footnotes), providing an extraordinary visual record of a golf course widely regarded as one of the finest in the world. Written by club historian John Moran and noted golf historian Dr. Rand Jerris, The Prairie Raynor will inform and engage both long-time members and lovers of Golden Age golf courses. It describes, in both golf and artistic terms, why Raynor’s creation in Wheaton remains architecturally significant one-hundred years later. (Hardcover) 332 pages.