Every Hole at Medinah Country Club's No. 3 Course

Medina Country Club's famous No. 3 course has a reputation as a tough, tree-lined brute with water, dog legs, sloping greens, and gnarly rough, forged over decades of U.S. Opens, PGA Championships, and team matches. But that was the old Medina No. 3. From 2023 to 2024, the course underwent a near-total deconstruction when the Australian design team of Jeff Ogilvie, Mike Cocking, and Ashley Mead removed hundreds of trees and recreated the atmosphere in broad strategic complexity that existed a century ago when the layout first opened. The Medina where Tiger Woods won two of his 15 majors, just outside of Chicago, was once a relentless test of accuracy and power. Now, with much wider fairways, prairie-style bunkers, larger greens with short grass runoffs, and reoriented holes around Lake Khadija, No. 3 has gone from a stroke-play nightmare to a match-play puzzle where width and dynamic hole locations entice golfers to go hunting for best angles. With more options available, original new holes, and a refreshed identity, Medina is ready for a new century. This is every hole at Medina Country Club's No. 3 course. The drive on the par-4 first is semi-blind as the fairway crests over a shoulder of land. But from there, it's like entering a new, more spacious world as the scenery opens and the fairway tumbles left toward a green-tilted front-to-back and set against the horizon of Lake Khadija, the body of water that bisects the course. Trees behind the green and to the right have been removed to expose views of the second hole on the far side of the water, giving golfers a nervous preview of one of Medina's most daunting shots. That shot—a do-or-die poke over the lake to the par-3 second green—comes too early in the round for comfort. The previous version of Medina was known for its three intimidating but somewhat redundant par-3s that crossed back and forth over Lake Khadija. Ogilvy, Cocking, and Mead—known as OCM—scuttled that straightforward arrangement in search of more variety but kept the second hole in place, though with an expanded green that sits more naturally against the hillside. The large back bunkers are new, and the strange corrugated metal bulkhead fronting the old green has been replaced by stone. Trees, fairway lines, and bunkers traditionally dictated the shot shapes required to play number 3, and it was a settled issue that a right-to-left drive at the par-4 third was required. Now, with greater latitude, golfers can work the ball either way, and bunkers at 290 and 340 yards off the back tee force better players to make a choice to hit a conservative tee shot or press driver up into the gap. The green is much deeper than it was—45 yards in all—with elastic hole locations that can be tucked around the edges, though the first 10 paces are an unpinnable false front. Medina's rolling topography is one of the course's most underrated assets, and it shows at the long par-4 fourth. The fairway crests over a low ridge into a broad valley, presenting blind uphill approaches to a green perched on another bench. The existing bunkers were flat on the bottom with gently flashed faces and did not stand out visually. OCM took an old-school approach to their bunkers, carving the irregular shapes into upslopes to fill up the visual space, a tactic common to architects in the days before heavy machinery was used to alter landscapes. For the 2026 President's Cup matches, the 505-yard fifth serves as the first hole to ensure groups aren't closed out before they reach the second nine's dramatic lakeside holes. A wall of trees that used to crowd the left side are now gone, and the fairway is extended toward an out-of-bounds fence. Staggered fairway bunkers create left and right movements, and the slender green has been rotated and exposed on the left. This is now a pick-your-poison hole, with a safer path down the right but with a poor angle into the green, or a more perilous path down the left that leaves a much easier avenue of approach to back hole locations. Medina was founded by members of the Arabic Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in the 1920s, which explains the existence of one of golf's most unique clubhouses. A broad and imposing palace inspired by Byzantine, Middle Eastern, and Oriental architecture, the property they purchased for their architect, Tom Bendalo, 25 miles west of the city, had both groves of oaks and hickories and open areas adjacent to farmland. In the 1930s, the club developed one of the country's first major tree-planting programs that added thousands of elms, maples, ash, birch, and shrubs across the three golf courses. An official count prior to the 1999 PGA Championship tallied the number of trees lining the fairways and greens of the No. 3 course at 4,161. A critical number of those are now gone, and in particular, the south side of the course has been returned to its pre-1930s pasture state. The sixth is a fascinating hole that moves into the newly cleared section of the property. It continues the theme of the split-rail fence that forms a tight, out-of-bounds line straight down the left and through the deep, narrow green. OCM found photographs of a similar fence from Medina's early years and recreated the feature, using it the way burns and rock walls exist on old links. The T's direct drives toward the out-of-bounds line, and you can try to play away from it, but bunkers on the right hem you in. One way or another, you're going to have to hit a shot, even a greenside pitcher chip, that flirts uncomfortably with the penalty line. Tom Bendalo's original routing cleverly triangulated holes to form points where different greens and T's meet. This allowed for OCM to re-sequence the holes, and the former 10th, a par-5 moving along the southern boundary, is now played as the 7th. Tree clearing gives the fairway room to swing out wide right before it turns back left past a centerline bunker. Long players trying to get home in two need to be aware of another fence that once again runs down the left and tight to the green. With half of the putting surface hidden behind a cavernous front right bunker, getting the angle in from the left is crucial. The par-4 8th, formerly the 11th, is another option-rich hole. The drive plays diagonally across a line of bunkers, and depending on the T's it's potentially drivable for the longest hitters. But every player needs to decide on a line of attack as the carry over the bunkers increases the more aggressive one gets. The key is to hug the bunkers because approach shots from the right will struggle to hold the small, shallow green that runs away to the left. Balls that do miss long a left will at least have recoveries from a friendly expanse of close-cropped grass, something rarely found at Medina before. Though it plays in the same footprint as the old 9th, the new 9th is unrecognizable. It was formerly a tight, quick dogleg left through a channel of trees that forced many players to hit an iron to the corner for position. The entire bank of trees on the right has been clearcut and bunkers rather than branches now dictate strategy, and as a result players can be much more aggressive with their drives. The second shot is slightly uphill and used to call for a full aerial shot over two pinching bunkers. Now the green is receptive to a shot played along the ground, though a small mound in front tends to divert balls left and right. Number 10 turns back north into the wooded middle of the property along a fairway punctuated by singular specimen trees. This is a simple, elegant hole, but it's also the longest at Medina, nearly 650 yards from the gold tees. After a rise and the fairway is cleared, a large regal green complex comes into view, presenting an attractive target for long seconds and thirds. The green slopes off the bunker on the left, and the front right side is protected by a kind of lion's mouth bunker that gives the putting surface a triangular shape and several tight corner hole locations that require precision. The only par 3 at Medina that doesn't have water in play is the 11th, but it is surrounded by a sea of shortgrass. When greens are ringed and long rough, there's usually only one play, whether you're a 20 handicap or a professional. Pitch on with a lob wedge. Missing the green at 11, as with many others at number 3, provides a bounty of recovery options that can change day to day. The putting surface here at 11 slides gradually from front left to the back right edge, so factor in some extra roll both on the tee shot and chips. Medina's rich topography takes the stage again at the long par 4 12th, where the fairway scrolls out toward a crest before banking right, sloping toward a pond on the low side. Players who hit poor drives need to worry about the slope and the water on their second shots, and even good drives will be challenged to reach the slippery green set on a knob that falls steeply off to the right. Tiger Woods stood on the tee at 12 in the final round of the 1999 PGA Championship with a 5-stroke lead, but he made bogey here, followed by a double bogey on 13 to bring young Sergio Garcia to within a shot, setting up a memorable duel between the two over the last 5 holes. Up to this point, the holes have followed the arrangement of Tom Bendolo's routing, though numbered differently. From this point on, everything is different. OCM eliminated the existing 240-yard par 3 that crossed back to the other side of the lake, a hole that was Bendolo's original 17th, and replaced it with a par 3 that runs parallel to the lake's shoreline. This new one-shotter is nowhere near as difficult or intimidating as the old one, but it gives Medina two things it didn't have—a short, flexible par 3, and one with water off the tumbling right side of the green, rather than in front. Another new addition to Medina is the par 4 14th that tumbles down in the same direction as the 14th, but begins to veer to the right at the spot where the previous green sat. Tree removal on the horizon has restored the old pasture character of the hole, and the strategy is set up by a seductive low green that blurs the line between fairway and putting surface. The naked entry begs for a bouncing shot—one that's best attempted from the right side of the fairway—and approaches to backpins need to get past a lovely swale that cuts across the middle of the green. 15 occupies the same space as the old 16th, a sharp dogleg made famous in the Tiger-Sergio duel when Garcia punched a shot onto the green from behind a tree and ran scissor-kicking up the fairway to watch it. It's now Medina's longest par 4, with a much straighter fairway and a new green complex that's been shifted 50 yards to the right. Second shots are played uphill to a blind, chevron-shaped green with high left and lower right segments, and hole location here is everything. Flags on the broad, flatter upper tier are more accessible, but the position on the right requires a long carry over bunkers, though a steep middle contour will help feed balls down to the hole. Medina was renowned for its holes on Lake Khadija, but OCM believed there was a better way to utilize the shoreline than with full frontal assaults, as was the case at the now deleted par 3 17th. Their solution was to cross the lake diagonally with the new 400-yard par 4 that sets up a choice between short, safe paths over the water to more gambling lines farther down the fairway. However, the hole assumes heroic proportions when the tees are set forward to bring the green into play with driver, but those shots need to be flushed because a false edge short and on the right of the putting surface will ricochet balls into the hazard. The par 3 17th crosses back over the water, but again it's played on the diagonal. Like the old 17th that went in the opposite direction, this is still a tough all-carry tee shot for average golfers, but it's also more difficult for advanced players who rarely miss the ball short but do stray left and right, especially from the 217-yard tees. The green sits up above the water, and while there's room for error on the right, left side flags look like they're hovering out in space and a miss in that direction can be catastrophic. Another advantage to restructuring the closing holes around Lake Adesia is that it places the tee for the 18th on the far side of the water, allowing it to be lengthened beyond the old 18th by over 40 yards. It plays through a previously unused triangle of property next to the first hole after the fairway was shifted over 200 yards to the east. A good line for most players is the giant flagpole in the distance, but long hitters need to keep the ball down the left of the crowning fairway to avoid bunkers. Members play this as a par 5, but in matchplay situations, the par doesn't matter, and the low, slinky green with the flagpole behind it is reachable in two shots for many players. Medina No. 3 was a perennial top 25 course on Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Courses for most of its life, but began to slide down the rankings as architectural tastes changed in the last decade. At one point, it slipped all the way to No. 93 before rebounding back to 74 following the transformation by OCM. A course that once demanded players be unerringly long and straight now encourages them to think strategically and be crafty with their short games. As more golfers discover its nuances, there's every reason to believe that Medina No. 3's reputation and ranking will do nothing but continue to ascend.