Exmoor Country Club

Established in 1896, Exmoor Country Club is a private, member-owned country club located in Highland Park, Illinois that features an 18-hole golf course designed by H. J. Tweedie.

Exmoor Country Club was one of 11 charter clubs that established the Western Golf Association in 1899. The course was initially designed by H.J. Tweedie, but was redesigned in 1914 by famed architect Donald Ross. Ross utilized his trademark green contours and strategic bunkering to bring the course up to early 20th century standards.

The course hosted the 2018 Constellation Senior Players Championship, which was won by Vijay Singh in a playoff. Singh defeated Jeff Maggert with a birdie on the second playoff hole. Exmoor also hosted the 2022 Western Amateur Championship.

Exmoor Country Club

Incorporated as Illinois’ third golf club in 1896, Exmoor opened its clubhouse and original nine-hole golf course on June 26, 1897. The club’s 40 charter members set in motion the varied activities, spirit of sportsmanship, and family-oriented traditions that endure to this day.

Harvard students Vernon Cassard and Everett Millard conceived the idea for Exmoor and engaged the interest of William A. Alexander, a prominent insurance executive. Defying skeptics of the new game of golf, Alexander and his friend, Charles W. Fullerton, moved boldly. They bought the 93-acre Francis Stupey farm, gained approvals from city officials, and cleared 2,000 tree stumps.

Then, within a six-month period, they built a nine-hole golf course and a two-story classically styled clubhouse to serve as the centerpiece of club life.

From its first days, Exmoor promoted golf by hosting inter-club and regional tournaments. C.B. Macdonald, the first U.S. Amateur champion in 1895 and architect of the club’s first course, won the first President’s Cup at Exmoor in 1898.

Exmoor’s name was inspired by the setting of a romantic nineteenth-century British novel Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. The Exmoor region is located in the west of England, straddling the counties of Somerset and Dorset. Exmoor is now a national park of great natural beauty. The name Exmoor is derived from the River Exe that flows through this spectacular landscape.

Exmoor’s early members, both men and women, took up golf with zeal. The club’s first golf professional, Scotsman James Tweedie, was hired; a club maker crafted mashies and niblicks; a caddie program was started; and inter-club competitions were reported each Monday in the daily newspapers.

Some local clergymen, however, objected to their congregants playing golf on Sundays, but Exmoor founders faithfully addressed their concerns, visiting each minister bearing gifts of new sets of golf clubs, gutta percha balls, and honorary memberships. The club also assured the places of worship that caddies would only work on Sunday afternoons, so they could fill the pews with their families in the morning.

So enthusiastic were Exmoor’s founders that they convinced Highland Park officials to name nearby streets after other clubs of the Western Golf Association. As you travel to the club, you may drive on streets called Midlothian, Skokie, Glenview, Onwentsia, Homewood and Chicago.

Since its founding, Exmoor members have embraced a larger purpose for their club, beyond sports and social gatherings. During World War I, Exmoor led all local clubs by raising $6,300 for the Salvation Army. Military Balls in 1917 and 1918 officers at Ft. Sheridan and Great Lakes and raised large sums for the Red Cross and the Navy Relief Fund.

During the pandemic of 1918, Exmoor offered its clubhouse to serve as a hospital. More than 130 persons were given care by local nurses, and Exmoor employees assisted at great risk to their own health.

Exmoor Country Club now offers pickleball programs. Pickleball is a paddle sport that has surged in popularity over the past few years that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis. The game is played on a court with a net similar to tennis, and players use paddles to hit a perforated ball over the net.