Tam O’Shanter Golf Course: The Niles Course That Helped Change Professional Golf

A golfer standing on the ninth tee at Tam O’Shanter Golf Course in Niles faces a short shot across the North Branch of the Chicago River. The green ahead was once the 18th green of a championship course. In 1953, Lew Worsham sent a wedge shot across the same stretch of water, watched it drop into the hole for an eagle and won the World Championship of Golf by one stroke.

The shot would have been remarkable anywhere. At Tam, it happened during the first golf tournament broadcast nationally on television. Millions could see the kind of finish that previously belonged only to the people gathered around a green. That moment captures why this modest public course has an outsized place in golf history.

From Private Club to George May’s Showplace

Tam O’Shanter began as an 18-hole private country club designed in 1925 by Charles D. Wagstaff. Its early years were disrupted when a fire destroyed the clubhouse in 1936. George S. May acquired a controlling interest that year and invested heavily in rebuilding the property. A second fire damaged much of the clubhouse in 1946, but by then May had already begun turning Tam into one of the most talked-about tournament venues in America.

May understood that a golf tournament could be more than a competition. It could be a spectacle that drew stars, spectators and attention far beyond the host club. His approach began taking shape with the 1940 Chicago Open at Tam. In 1941, he launched the Tam O’Shanter Open with a purse designed to attract the game’s best players.

He also worked on the experience outside the ropes. Grandstands gave spectators places to watch. Player numbers helped fans identify golfers as they moved around the course. Tam’s historical archive preserves images of crowded greens, promotional displays and celebrities visiting the club. Heavyweight champion Joe Louis played in events there; Bing Crosby and Bob Hope entertained a crowd during a 1945 charity appearance. May was promoting golf as something people could follow and enjoy together, whether or not they played it themselves.

George May 1945 All-American Golf Tournament

A Tournament Run Filled With Champions

The men’s All-American Open, as May’s tournament became known, produced a remarkable list of winners. Byron Nelson won four times, including in 1945, the year of his extraordinary 11-tournament winning streak. Lloyd Mangrum won three times. Other champions included Bobby Locke, Sam Snead, Cary Middlecoff and Roberto De Vicenzo, who won the final edition in 1957.

Beginning in 1946, May added the World Championship of Golf. Its enormous prize money made Tam a consequential stop for the leading professionals of the day. Winners included Snead, Ben Hogan, Julius Boros and Worsham. The tournaments also brought international players such as South Africa’s Locke to Niles. Hogan, Nelson and Snead were not simply names on a commemorative wall: they competed on this ground before large galleries.

Women’s professional golf was part of the story, too. Tam staged women’s competitions alongside its men’s events, giving audiences opportunities to see stars including Patty Berg and Babe Zaharias. The course’s museum records their appearances and the crowds that followed them. A photograph from the 1954 World Championship shows Zaharias putting on the 18th green with spectators packed around it. Tam’s history belongs to those women as much as it belongs to the men whose names often lead accounts of May’s tournaments.

The Shot That Reached the Nation

For all the champions who played Tam, one swing remains its defining moment. In the final round of the 1953 World Championship, Worsham arrived at the 18th hole needing something special to catch Chandler Harper. From 104 yards, he holed his approach for an eagle two and finished one stroke ahead.

Television made the finish a national event. Cameras were already at Tam for the tournament’s broadcast, allowing viewers to witness the shot as the contest ended. Today, the ninth green occupies the site of that old 18th green. The present hole is a par three, so golfers cannot replay Worsham’s approach exactly. They can, however, hit toward the green where it landed, with the river still between them and the target. It is a rare connection between an everyday public round and a pivotal moment in sports broadcasting.

May’s annual tournament series ended after 1957 amid a dispute with the PGA. He died in 1962, but major professional golf returned briefly to his course. Tam hosted the Western Open in 1964, won by Chi-Chi Rodríguez, and again in 1965, when Billy Casper took the title. Those were the final years in which the original championship course served as a major tour venue.

Nine Holes, a Public Future

Development eventually claimed much of Tam O’Shanter’s 18-hole property. A nine-hole, par-33 layout took shape on the remaining land in the early 1970s. The Niles Park District completed its purchase in 1973 and brought the course into public ownership. William J. Spear is associated with the nine-hole course that reopened under the Park District in 1974. The course’s own history dates the opening of today’s nine-hole layout to 1971, before that purchase.

The smaller footprint changed the golf, but it did not erase the past. The present first hole and sixth hole retain links to the original 18-hole layout; today’s sixth was once the championship course’s 16th. The fifth and ninth greens also connect modern players to memorable shots from Tam’s tournament years. What survived is more than a collection of memorabilia. Golfers can still play across parts of the ground on which the greats competed.

Preserving that experience has required practical work. Tam sits along the North Branch of the Chicago River, and flooding had long left portions of the course wet and difficult to maintain. In 2017 and 2018, the Park District undertook a substantial renovation led by architects Doug Myslinski and Todd Quitno, with construction by Wadsworth Golf Construction. The team expanded tees, revised bunkers, improved drainage and made approaches to some greens more welcoming to public golfers.

The project did not make the river disappear. Its drainage system helps the course recover after floodwater recedes, allowing maintenance crews and golfers to return sooner. Tam officially reopened in June 2018.

George May’s 18-hole tournament stage is gone, but the course he made famous remains accessible. At Tam O’Shanter, a golfer can play nine holes beside the river, visit the club’s historical display and walk toward a green once seen by a national television audience. Few Chicago-area courses offer a more direct way to experience the history of the game.

Tournament Winners at Tam O’Shanter

Tam O’Shanter hosted separate men’s and women’s professional competitions, often during the same tournament week. A dash indicates that the event had not yet begun.

Other Professional Tournaments Held at Tam O’Shanter

These tables list professional champions. Tam O’Shanter also hosted men’s and women’s amateur competitions.

Sources

• Tam O’Shanter Golf Course: History & Museum
• Tam O’Shanter Golf Course: About the Course
• Chicago Golf Report: Chicago’s Top Nine-Hole Golf Courses
• Golf Course Architecture: Historic Tam O’Shanter Course Enters a New Era
• Tam O’Shanter Renovation Project: Engineering Account