The epic past in the BMW Championship 2023 battlefield

The penultimate PGA Tour event of the season takes place from August 17 to 20 at Olympia Fields Country Club, once the largest golf complex in the world.

Olympia Fields is located in the suburbs of Chicago, founded in 1915. After eight years of development, this place has four courses, all 18 holes. With the fourth course - North Course opened in 1923, Olympia Fields became the largest golf complex in the world, when located on more than 404 hectares of land.

A corner of Olympia Fields, Chicago, USA. Photo: PGA Tour — A corner of Olympia Fields, Chicago, USA. Photo: *PGA Tour*

All four courts surrounded the clubhouse with its four-sided clock tower, which later became the defining feature of Olympia Fields. For many years, its clubhouse, with a floor area of 1 hectare, also held the title of "the largest in the world". The changing area alone occupied nearly 1,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of many clubhouses today.

Meanwhile, the Olympia Fields membership group is also legendary, with a section dedicated to clergy. In the 1920s, the complex had to mobilize 1,000 caddies on peak days. Thanks to that, this place was arranged with its own train station and rail line, connecting to Chicago to transport guests and staff.

But in the early 1940s, Olympia Fields had to scale back operations due to the gloomy economy. In need of money to overcome difficulties, the owners of the complex sold the land to real estate developers. Accordingly, they only kept the original North Stadium, combining the three remaining stadiums into one. After restructuring, Olympia Fields had only two stadiums, which still exist today.

This week, the North par-70 course is hosting the BMW Championship for the second time, the first being in 2020. The tournament is limited to the top 50 in the FedEx Cup, with the top 30 qualifying for the Tour Championship grand final to determine the 2022-23 season champion. This year’s BMW Championship winner will take home $3.6 million. In 2022, Patrick Cantlay took home $2.7 million for a -14 finish on the par-71 course at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware.

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