Bolingbrook Golf Club: From Open Farmland to the World Stage

Bolingbrook Golf Club has followed an unusual path to becoming one of the most recognizable public golf courses in the Chicago area.

What began as open farmland in Chicago’s southwest suburbs was transformed into an ambitious municipal golf facility designed by acclaimed architects Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest. Since opening in 2002, Bolingbrook has hosted junior tournaments, professional qualifiers and developmental-tour events before making its biggest leap onto the international golf stage as the host of LIV Golf Chicago in 2024 and 2025.

Today, the Village of Bolingbrook-owned course that is managed by KemperSports combines a championship-caliber layout with one of the largest golf clubhouses in the region, an expansive practice facility and a tournament résumé that few Chicago-area public courses can match.

The Origins of Bolingbrook Golf Club

The story of Bolingbrook Golf Club is tied to the rapid development of the Village of Bolingbrook and an infrastructure challenge facing the community.

As development expanded west of Weber Road, the village created a regional stormwater plan. Acquiring the land necessary for retention ponds meant purchasing entire farms, leaving the village with substantial additional acreage—including land that remained unsuitable for conventional development because of the floodplain.

Village officials ultimately saw golf as a way to combine recreation with stormwater management.

Engineering firms including Rust Environmental & Infrastructure, Cemcon Ltd. and Christopher B. Burke Engineering worked on the stormwater component, while the village brought in renowned golf course architect Arthur Hills and his longtime associate Steve Forrest to transform the property into a championship golf course.

The result was Bolingbrook Golf Club, which opened in July 2002.

The project was closely associated with longtime Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar, who envisioned the facility as more than a traditional municipal golf course. Bolingbrook was growing rapidly, and the golf club became part of an effort to establish the village as a destination for recreation, events and tourism.

That ambition is particularly evident in the club’s massive 76,000-square-foot clubhouse, which was named Chicago’s Top Public Golf Course Clubhouse by Chicago Golf Report. With restaurants, locker rooms, banquet facilities and event spaces, the building gives Bolingbrook Golf Club a scale more commonly associated with a private country club or resort than a municipal facility.

Arthur Hills Brings Championship Golf to Bolingbrook

Bolingbrook Golf Club – 1st Hole

The Village of Bolingbrook selected one of the country’s most accomplished architects to design its new course.

Arthur Hills, who died in 2021 at age 91, spent more than five decades designing golf courses. His portfolio included more than 200 original courses and more than 150 renovation projects. He also served as president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and was inducted into both the Ohio and Michigan Golf Halls of Fame.

Hills’ design philosophy generally emphasized strategy, playability and using the characteristics of the existing property rather than simply creating difficulty.

At Bolingbrook, Hills worked with longtime partner Steve Forrest to create dramatic golf terrain from what had largely been open farmland.

The par-72 course stretches to 7,104 yards from the back tees, with a course rating of 74.3 and slope of 142. Multiple sets of tees allow the course to play considerably shorter for recreational golfers.

Elevated tees, rolling fairways, extensive bunkering and seven lakes define the layout. Water is a recurring strategic element throughout the round.

Two holes particularly stand out.

The 5th is a massive par 5 measuring 600 yards from the championship tees, although the prevailing wind can help players attempting to cover the distance.

The most recognizable hole is the par-3 15th. Measuring 156 yards from the back tees, its true island green creates one of the most dramatic shots on the golf course—and became an obvious focal point when professional tournament golf arrived at Bolingbrook.

The club also features an unusually extensive practice facility. Its Golf Academy includes a driving range, short-game facilities and putting areas, reinforcing the original concept of Bolingbrook as a complete golf destination rather than simply an 18-hole municipal course.

Building a Tournament Résumé

Long before LIV Golf arrived, Bolingbrook Golf Club was being used for competitive golf.

During its early years, the club hosted events including an American Junior Golf Association tournament, Monday qualifiers for the Western Open and LaSalle Bank Open, the World Youth Tournament Challenge and other professional and celebrity events.

The course’s reputation received an early boost when Golf Magazine named Bolingbrook among its “Top 10 New You Can Play” courses in 2003.

A more significant professional test arrived in 2021.

Bolingbrook was selected as one of eight tournament sites for the inaugural Forme Tour, a PGA TOUR-sanctioned developmental circuit created during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide competition for players who had earned status on PGA TOUR Canada but faced travel restrictions.

The Bolingbrook Golf Club Invitational brought a field of 156 players to the course July 20-23, 2021.

Mac Meissner won the tournament and ultimately finished among the top five on the Forme Tour points list, earning status on the Korn Ferry Tour for the following season.

The event demonstrated that Bolingbrook possessed not only a golf course capable of testing elite players but also the infrastructure required to stage a significant professional tournament.

Three years later, that combination would become particularly important.

LIV Golf Chicago Comes to Bolingbrook

LIV Golf 2024 at Bolingbrook Golf Club

Bolingbrook Golf Club’s tournament profile changed dramatically in 2024.

After LIV Golf staged its first two Chicago-area tournaments at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, the league searched for a new Chicago venue. Bolingbrook emerged as the choice for the 2024 LIV Golf Individual Championship.

The selection put a municipal golf course approximately 30 miles southwest of downtown Chicago on an international stage.

From September 13-15, 2024, a field featuring major champions including Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Cameron Smith competed at Bolingbrook.

The stakes went beyond the tournament itself. The event determined LIV Golf’s season-long individual champion while also helping determine player status and positioning for the league’s season-ending team championship.

Jon Rahm delivered the defining performance.

Rahm closed with a bogey-free 4-under-par 66 to win LIV Golf Chicago and secure the 2024 LIV Golf individual season championship.

For Bolingbrook Golf Club, hosting some of the world’s most accomplished players represented the biggest tournament in the course’s history.

And it wasn’t a one-time appearance.

LIV Golf Returns in 2025

LIV Golf 2025

LIV Golf returned to Bolingbrook Golf Club August 8-10, 2025, bringing another international field to the southwest suburbs.

This time the tournament produced an especially dramatic conclusion.

South Africa’s Dean Burmester entered the final round with the lead but opened with three consecutive bogeys. He recovered to shoot an even-par 71 and finished tied at 9-under with defending Bolingbrook champion Jon Rahm and Spanish rookie Josele Ballester.

All three returned to the 18th hole for a sudden-death playoff.

After Rahm and Ballester missed their birdie attempts, Burmester converted his birdie putt to capture his second LIV Golf individual title.

Minutes later, Bolingbrook’s 18th hole hosted another playoff. Burmester’s Stinger GC teammates Branden Grace and Charl Schwartzel defeated Torque GC to win the team competition, completing a rare individual-and-team sweep.

Bolingbrook Golf Club Adding Year-Round Driving Range Facility

Bolingbrook Golf Club is also preparing for a major expansion of its practice facilities with the construction of a new covered driving range structure designed to extend use of the range throughout much of the year.

The new facility is being built by Cover The Tees and is currently planned to include 25 covered hitting bays. The structure will allow golfers to use the driving range in a much wider range of weather conditions than a traditional open-air range.

The project will also feature Toptracer ball-tracking and gaming technology, expanding the range beyond traditional practice. Toptracer allows players to track shots, play virtual golf courses and participate in interactive games, making the facility suitable for serious golfers as well as families, beginners and groups looking for a more casual or social golf experience.

A food and beverage component is also planned for the new range operation.

According to the Village of Bolingbrook, the project is being funded with hotel-motel tax revenue and is expected to become a revenue-generating operation for the village.

The investment represents another step in the evolution of Bolingbrook Golf Club from a traditional municipal golf course into a broader year-round golf and entertainment destination. Combined with the club’s championship course, large clubhouse, practice facilities and recent history of hosting LIV Golf, the covered Toptracer range should expand the property’s appeal well beyond the traditional Chicago golf season.

A Unique Place in Chicago Golf

Bolingbrook Golf Club occupies an unusual position within the Chicago golf landscape.

It does not have the century-plus history of courses such as Cog Hill, Medinah Country Club or Olympia Fields. It wasn’t created as an exclusive private club, and its history only dates to 2002.

Instead, Bolingbrook represents a much more modern chapter of Chicago golf.

A village transformed farmland and stormwater infrastructure into an ambitious public golf facility. Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest created a championship course that recreational golfers could play while still providing enough length, hazards and strategic challenge for elite competition.

More than two decades later, that investment has produced something relatively rare: a publicly accessible Chicago-area golf course where everyday players can walk the same fairways and attack the same island green that have challenged major champions.

From a municipal project built on former farmland to hosting Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and some of the world’s best golfers, Bolingbrook Golf Club’s evolution has been remarkable.

And after consecutive LIV Golf tournaments brought international attention to the course, Bolingbrook’s place in Chicago golf history looks considerably different than it did when the first golfers teed it up there in the summer of 2002.