Chevy Chase Country Club (Traditions at Chevy Chase)

Chevy Chase Country Club is a public 18-hole golf course and banquet clubhouse at 1000 N. Milwaukee Avenue, on the northern edge of Wheeling, Illinois, about 30 miles north of downtown Chicago by road. The golf course is marketed under the name Traditions at Chevy Chase, while the Tudor-style clubhouse that hosts weddings and events keeps the Chevy Chase Country Club name. Both belong to the Wheeling Park District, a public body, which bought the property in 1977. The course is a par 72 that measures 6,610 yards from the back tees, which the club calls the Midnight tees, with a course rating of 71.9 and a slope of 128 according to the club’s own scorecard. The original layout is credited to Tom Bendelow, the Scottish-born architect behind hundreds of early American courses, and it was rebuilt in the early 2000s by the Illinois firm Lohmann Golf Designs.

A word on the name, because it causes confusion. This is not the Chevy Chase Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland, the private club outside Washington, D.C., nor the Chevy Chase Country Club in Glendale, California, which has a nine-hole course of its own. The Wheeling course is a municipal, daily-fee facility open to anyone who books a tee time. It was open for the 2026 season: in October 2026 a national booking platform was still listing public tee times there, and golf apps were publishing reviews from rounds played in September and October 2026.

From roadhouse to park district course

The early history of the property is colorful, thinly documented and, in places, contradictory. What the sources agree on is that a golf course and a large clubhouse stood here on Milwaukee Avenue by the late 1920s, that the club went through several names and owners before settling on Chevy Chase, and that it was privately owned until the Wheeling Park District bought it in 1977.

The details vary from one account to the next. A local newspaper article from the mid-2000s, preserved by the Wheeling Historical Society, says the clubhouse was first built by the Knights of Columbus. A Chicago-area public golf blog dates that origin to 1917, under the name Columbian Country Club. GolfScout, a course guide, says instead that the club opened in 1927 as the Wheeling Golf and Country Club and was renamed Columbian Country Club shortly afterwards. The Wheeling Historical Society calls it Columbian Gardens. The club’s own events website says the clubhouse was built in 1927, and a booking platform puts the opening of the course in the mid-1920s, with 1925 given as the year built. A 2004 trade magazine article refers to the original Bendelow design as “circa 1925.” We have not found a primary document that settles the question, so this page gives the range rather than a single date.

The 1930s and 1940s are where the legends begin. According to a 1986 newspaper article quoted by the Wheeling Historical Society, the club was bought in 1936 by a man described as Lake County’s “gambling czar,” renamed Bon Aire and turned into a large gambling and entertainment venue, with illegal activity said to have continued into the 1940s under William Johnson, a showman and gambler. GolfScout gives a slightly different version: a reopening in 1935 as the Bon-Air Cafe and Country Club, billed as a theater country club with big-name entertainment, links to the Skidmore-Johnson gambling syndicate, an underground casino, and a closure in 1942. Both accounts agree that the Chevy Chase name dates from the postwar years, and GolfScout puts the reopening as Chevy Chase in 1949. Stories of Al Capone as a patron, of his brother supplying liquor, and of tunnels running from the basement toward the Des Plaines River also circulate. The Historical Society reports them with caution, quoting a staff member who said there is little documentation because of the alleged owners, and the golf blog that repeats the Capone connection calls it possibly an urban legend. We treat these stories the same way.

The modern era is better documented. The Wheeling Park District has owned the property since 1977. Voters approved a referendum in April 1997 to fund a renovation of the clubhouse, and according to a Pioneer Press article kept by the Historical Society, the clubhouse reopened in December 1999 after a ten-month renovation of its ballroom, banquet rooms, kitchen, locker rooms and golf shop. The building received a full exterior facelift, with a new roof, windows and doors, completed in April 2024 according to the architecture firm that designed it. That firm describes the building as dating from the 1930s with a French chateau exterior, which differs from the club’s own description of a 1927 Tudor-style building; the clubhouse has been extended several times, which may explain why sources describe it differently.

One more oddity: despite its Wheeling address, the property is not inside the Village of Wheeling. Newspaper clippings kept by the Historical Society report that the neighboring Village of Buffalo Grove annexed the clubhouse and about a third of the golf course, the part east of a creek that runs north to south through the property, after negotiations with the park district broke down in 2002. At the time, the rest of the course remained in unincorporated Lake County. We have not checked the current boundaries, which may have changed since.

The 2003 rebuild

For most of its history, the course’s main problem was water. It sits on flat ground close to the Des Plaines River, and a 2004 article in Golf Inc. magazine explains that a severe drainage problem, almost no water retention on site and an outdated irrigation system meant the course had historically lost play for days or weeks after heavy rain or river flooding. A Chicago golf blog says the same thing, adding that floods often made the course unplayable.

The park district hired Lohmann Golf Designs, with The Bruce Co. as contractor, for an 18-month renovation. According to Golf Inc., the team built three retention ponds to deal with the flooding, added swales and grass depressions to hold runoff and give the formerly flat course more strategy, and rebuilt greens, tees and bunkers with new bentgrass. The same blog adds a new sprinkler system, greenside collection areas, fairway mounding and deep, sculpted bunkers. Golf Inc. reported that the project won its first Renovation of the Year award, in a competition judged in March 2004, and that judges praised its faithfulness to the original Bendelow design.

The exact date of the work varies between sources. A booking platform and a state golf directory say the renovation took place in 2002; the Chicago blog speaks of a 2003 investment; the club’s own website lists holes in one “from 2003, when the course was renovated.” The most likely reading is that construction ran through 2002 and the rebuilt course opened in 2003. GolfPass also credits Dick Nugent and Todd Quitno with work on the course; we found no other source for that, and the club credits only Lohmann.

Tom Bendelow, the original architect, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1868 and died in River Forest, Illinois, in 1936, according to Wikipedia. He worked for the sporting goods company A.G. Spalding, moved to Chicago in 1901 as its director of golf course development, and is credited with somewhere between 600 and 700 courses, many of them simple layouts built quickly to spread the game. His best-known work near Chicago is at Medinah Country Club. How much of his routing survives at Chevy Chase after the 2003 rebuild is not documented in the sources we read.

What the course asks of you

On paper, Traditions at Chevy Chase is a moderate test for a public course. The club’s scorecard lists five tee options: Midnight at 6,610 yards (rating 71.9, slope 128), Burnt Red at 6,078 yards (69.5 and 122), Hunter Green at 5,647 yards (67.4 and 115 for men, 72.4 and 124 for women) and Natural at 5,084 yards (69.4 and 117). Par is 72 from every tee, with 36 on each nine, and the card also lists junior tees according to a booking platform. The layout has four par 5s, four par 3s and ten par 4s, which is a conventional mix, and the length is spread evenly: 3,334 yards on the front nine and 3,276 on the back from the Midnight tees.

The defining feature, after the 2003 rebuild, is water. A Chicago public golf blog counts water in play to some degree on 14 holes and more than 50 bunkers; booking platforms say several lakes come into play on more than half the holes. Reviewers and course guides also describe mature hardwoods lining many fairways, a flat site given shape by mounding and ridges, and several fairways that run side by side. GolfScout calls the layout somewhat tight at times, with many parallel fairways and a lot of water. Booking platforms describe the greens as medium-sized, mildly undulating and known for a consistent roll, and the turf on greens and fairways as bentgrass.

The holes most often singled out are these, with yardages from the Midnight tees on the club’s card:

• The 2nd, a par 5 of 494 yards. The Chicago blog notes a lake along the whole left side, two fairway bunkers and a greenside bunker front right, and says it plays harder than its length suggests.
• The 4th, a par 5 of 535 yards, with wetlands on the left that the same writer considers more in play than they look.
• The 5th, a par 4 of 434 yards and the number one stroke index for men on the club’s card, which descends to a green protected by a pond.
• The 12th, a par 4 of 440 yards, the longest two-shot hole on the back nine and the second hardest hole on the men’s card.
• The 15th, a par 5 of 494 yards, where water runs along both sides up to the green, so the approach rather than the drive is the key shot, according to the blog.
• The 18th, a par 5 of 546 yards and the longest hole on the course. Water pinches the fairway around 300 yards from the tee, a pond guards the green, and the clubhouse forms the backdrop. Booking platforms describe it as the signature closing hole.

The par 3s are short to middling: the 6th at 137 yards, the 16th at 158, the 13th at 186 and the 9th at 195. The shortest par 4s, the 14th at 346 yards, the 11th at 350 and the 17th at 352, give some relief. From the forward tees the course shortens a great deal, with several holes under 300 yards from the Natural tees, which makes it a reasonable choice for beginners and juniors.

The club’s website also notes that drinking water is available on the 4th, 7th and 12th tees, asks golfers to keep noise down near the houses that border part of the property, and warns that golfers are responsible for damage caused by errant balls.

What golfers say

Chevy Chase is widely reviewed for a municipal course. In October 2026 the 18Birdies app showed an average of 4.4 out of 5 from 372 reviews, with course condition and value each rated 4.2, pace of play described as fast and difficulty as medium. TeeOff, a booking platform that displays GolfPass reviews, showed 801 reviews with 89 percent of reviewers recommending the course. We could not open the GolfPass and Tripadvisor review pages directly and saw only short extracts of them, so the material on individual opinions is thinner than the review counts suggest. We also read a detailed 2020 write-up on a Chicago public golf blog, the GolfScout course guide and the short reviews quoted on the club’s own website, which are obviously selected by the club. The points below summarize what recurs. They are other people’s opinions, not ours, and we name no one.

What comes up in its favor

• Conditioning is the most consistent compliment: well-kept fairways, tidy bunkers and greens that roll true. A booking platform says the course has a reputation for fine conditioning.
• The layout is described as a fair test with variety, mixing open holes with a few genuinely demanding ones, and the water gives it more character than the flat site would suggest.
• Pace of play is often rated quick, and the course is described as good for walking.
• The carts have GPS, and the bar and grill in the clubhouse is appreciated after a round.
• The Chicago blog scored it well overall and judged its twilight times a good way to play a very good layout.

What comes up against

• There is no driving range on site, only a putting green and a chipping area. The blog points golfers to a range in Mount Prospect, a few miles away.
• Parallel fairways mean stray balls from other groups, and one reviewer complained of balls landing on their hole and green.
• Some reviewers find it pricey for what it is, especially after heavy rain when carts are restricted to paths.
• Weekends can be crowded, with waits on some tees, and at least one golfer objected to the way a ranger pushed a group on pace.
• A 2023 reviewer mentioned frequent jet noise overhead.
• One reviewer found parts of the front nine very open, with few trees, which contradicts other descriptions of a tree-lined course; both may be true of different holes.

Getting there and playing

Traditions at Chevy Chase is a public course: no membership is needed and the park district runs it as a daily-fee facility. Tee times can be booked through the club’s website, which links to an online booking system, and through national booking platforms. Groups of fewer than four may be paired with other golfers on those platforms. Wheeling Park District residents get reduced rates, and the club sells a players card and gift cards. A dress code applies: a booking listing says collared shirts are required and denim and tank tops are not allowed. Metal spikes are not permitted. Carts and rental clubs are available, walking is allowed, and push carts can be used. Lessons are given by the club’s golf professionals, and the course hosts leagues and many charity and business outings, which can fill the tee sheet on some weekdays.

The season runs from spring to late fall. Booking platforms list the course as open from April 1 to December 1; in practice the dates depend on the weather. The club’s website announced a closing date of November 28 for the 2024 season and a reopening on March 29 for 2025. The clubhouse, by contrast, is open year-round for events, and the club says the Gable Bar and Grill serves golfers and the public during the season.

The clubhouse is a large event venue in its own right, with a Grand Ballroom, the Devonshire Room overlooking the course, the Gable Bar and Grill with a view of the 18th green, and a smaller meeting room. Expect wedding parties and banquets on weekends, which can affect parking.

The course lies on the west side of Milwaukee Avenue (Illinois Route 21), just north of Lake Cook Road, which marks the border between Cook and Lake counties. In a straight line, the map point we use for the course is about 3 miles from Chicago Executive Airport, about 12 miles from O’Hare International Airport and about 24 miles from the Loop in downtown Chicago. These are map distances; a booking platform gives 17 miles from O’Hare, presumably by road.

Rates vary by day, time of day, season, age and residency, and change from year to year. Check the current rates on the club’s website or the park district’s site before you go.

How we built this page

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location; the club’s golf website, traditionsatchevychase.com, for the scorecard, ratings and slopes, the name, the season dates, the services and the holes in one (read in archived copies from January 2025, as the live site blocked our automated reading); the club’s events website, chevychasecountryclub.com, for the 1927 date and the description of the clubhouse; GolfNow and TeeOff for the operator, the acreage, the season, the turf, the architects and the practice facilities; GolfScout for the 1927 opening, the names of the 1930s and 1940s and the 1977 purchase; the Wheeling Historical Society for the 1986 article on the Bon Aire years and for a folder of press clippings that includes the June 2004 Golf Inc. article on the renovation, a Pioneer Press article on the clubhouse renovation and Daily Herald and Pioneer Press articles on the Buffalo Grove annexation; the Windy City Public Golfers Guide blog (April 2020) for the hole descriptions, the bunker and water counts and its assessment; the Wold architecture firm for the 2024 exterior renovation; Wikipedia for Tom Bendelow; 18Birdies, TeeOff and short extracts from GolfPass and Tripadvisor for the review material. Some of the Wikidata and Wikipedia identifiers attached to this course in an automated dataset point to Chevy Chase, Maryland, and were not used.

The sources disagree on several points, and we say so where it matters. The founding date ranges from 1917 (the blog) to 1925 (a booking platform and Golf Inc.) and 1927 (GolfScout and the club). The renovation is dated 2002 by booking platforms and 2003 by the club and the blog. Ratings differ: the club gives 71.9 and 128 from the Midnight tees, as do booking platforms; GolfScout gives 71.8 and 130; 18Birdies gives 72.1 and 132; an older state golf directory lists 6,721 yards, 71.7 and 127, apparently from before the current card. A booking platform says the four regular tees range from 5,174 to 6,630 yards, while its own table shows 5,084 to 6,610. GolfScout gives 6,630 yards from the back tees; we follow the club’s 6,610, which matches the sum of the hole yardages on its card. The club’s archived card also shows nine-hole subtotals that do not add up (the front-nine total printed for the Midnight tees is in fact the Burnt Red figure); we use the sum of the individual holes. The phone numbers listed for the course differ between directories. The clubhouse is described as a 1927 Tudor building by the club and as a 1930s building with a French chateau exterior by the firm that renovated it.

Some details will age: the season dates, the review counts and averages read in October 2026, the booking arrangements, the staff and services, and the rates, which we deliberately leave out. The stories about gambling and Prohibition-era figures are reported as stories, not as established facts. The review section reports recurring themes rather than individual voices. Nobody from Panxis has played or visited this course, and this page is no substitute for a round.

The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. This page contains no commercial link and earns us no commission. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.

Other courses nearby

Closest to this one in our United States directory:

• Rolling Green Country Club — 5 mi
• Conway Farms Golf Club — 5 mi
• Kemper Lakes Golf Club — 7 mi
• Onwentsia Club — 7 mi