A Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Design
Our Story
Our course isn't old by some standards, but it's replete with storied Chicago golf legacy. Hilldale was built in 1970 on land that was once a sportsman's club owned by the famous retailer Marshall Field — so keep an eye out for the occasional bear, cub, or wolf. The Chicago kind, of course. You never know when a Chicago sports legend, past or present, might be prowling Hilldale.
We're located in Hoffman Estates, a mere twenty minutes west of O'Hare International Airport. In an area bustling with golf courses, you needn't shop long to find the most challenging course with the best greens in the 'burbs — and the only 18-hole layout in Northern Illinois designed by the world-famous architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr.
The Architect
When it's true, it isn't bragging. The late Robert Trent Jones, Sr. designed golf courses around the globe, and Hilldale is his only 18-hole course in Northern Illinois. Known for shaping raw land into beautiful-yet-challenging tests, Jones worked as an architect for nearly seven decades — logging an estimated eight million miles as he created more than 350 courses and remodeled over 150 others, including seventy-nine that went on to host national championships. His work stands in forty-five states and thirty-five countries, on every continent but Antarctica.
He fashioned his own program of study to become a golf course architect in the late 1940s, and became known for difficult holes and entire courses that bring huge bunkers and water hazards boldly into play. Jones built the putting green at the White House for President Eisenhower and a hole with three separate tees at Camp David. He co-founded the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1947, won the first Donald Ross Award, and in 1987 became the first architect inducted into the Golf World Hall of Fame.
On “Fair” Design
“Gentlemen, the hole is fair. Eminently fair.”— Robert Trent Jones, Sr.
When Mr. Jones redesigned the fourth hole at Baltusrol's Lower Course before the 1954 U.S. Open, some members thought the par 3 over a pond was unfair. He offered to play it alongside the club pro, Johnny Farrell, and two members while the others watched. Playing from the 165-yard members' tee, Farrell and the two members each found the green. Then Mr. Jones stepped up, swung his 4-iron, and watched his ball land on the green and roll into the cup for a hole-in-one. He turned to the gallery and delivered the line that outlived him: “Gentlemen, the hole is fair. Eminently fair.”
His clients included the Rockefeller family, the Aga Khan, and King Hassan II of Morocco. Among his final designs were the eighteen public layouts of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama. Golf was always in his thoughts — and a little of that lifelong devotion lives on every time you stand on a tee at Hilldale.
Walk the only 18-hole Robert Trent Jones, Sr. course in Northern Illinois.