Medinah Country Club: 7 Facts About The 2026 Presidents Cup Venue

The 18th hole at Medinah Country Club in Illinois — Medinah has a long and rich history

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The Presidents Cup returns to the US in 2026, with Medinah Country Club in Illinois hosting the biennial match for the first time.

The venue is no stranger to some of golf's biggest events, having hosted several Majors and one of the most memorable Ryder Cups in history.

However, the course that welcomes the US and International teams will look considerably different from the one that hosted the 2012 Ryder Cup, and that's partly thanks to the visiting team's captain.

A Rich Heritage

Sledding at Medinah Country Club in 1929 — Medinah was once a year-round venue for a variety of activities

Medinah Country Club was founded by a group of Shriners in 1924. Scottish architect Tom Bendelow designed all three original layouts, the last of which, Course No. 3, opened in 1928 and will host the Presidents Cup.

The course, which was originally designed for women, underwent changes in 1930 with assistance from A.W. Tillinghast.

They were aimed at increasing its difficulty following a 63 by Harry Cooper at the 1930 Medinah Open. It has continued evolving ever since, including courtesy of Roger Packard and Rees Jones.

In the years following its opening, Medinah was also a year-round venue for various activities besides golf, and even once had a 50-foot ski jump!

The Clubhouse

The clubhouse is one of the most distinctive in golf. Built in the 1920s at a cost of $1m (around $17m in today's money), it covers 120,000 square feet and features Byzantine, Oriental, Louis XIV and Italian architectural influences.

It also houses hand-painted mosaics, murals, a domed interior and a 60-foot-high rotunda.

Major History

Tiger Woods has won the PGA Championship twice at Medinah Country Club — Tiger Woods has won the PGA Championship at Medinah twice

Medinah has hosted three US Opens, in 1949, 1975 and 1990. Most recently, Hale Irwin became the oldest champion in the event’s history when he beat Mike Donald in a playoff aged 45.

It has also hosted the PGA Championship twice and Tiger Woods won the Wanamaker Trophy both times, in 1999 and 2006.

It was the venue for the 1988 US Senior Open, too, which was won by Gary Player.

The Miracle At Medinah

The victorious 2012 Team Europe Ryder Cup team — Team Europe completed a brilliant comeback to win the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah

While Medinah has hosted several memorable Majors, one of the biggest occasions in its history came at the 2012 Ryder Cup.

With just the Sunday singles to come, Jose María Olazabal's Europeans trailed Davis Love III's US team 10-6, despite an Ian Poulter-inspired fightback that saw them tie the Saturday afternoon's four-ball session 2-2.

That helped galvanise the team, and Europe completed an extraordinary comeback on Sunday, winning the singles 8.5-3.5 to seal a 14.5-13.5 victory that became known as the Miracle at Medinah.

Course Redesign

Geoff Ogilvy with the Presidents Cup — Geoff Ogilvy had a hand in Medinah's redesign

Medinah’s most recent course redesign has a link to the 2026 Presidents Cup because it was entrusted to Internationals captain Geoff Ogilvy’s design team, OCM.

Ogilvy and his partners, Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead, embarked on renovation work in 2022 to turn Medinah into a Melbourne Sandbelt-style layout, using aerial photographs from the 1930s to help bring the vision to life.

The team largely retained the corridors of the opening 12 holes but removed three existing holes and introduced three new ones.

The first six holes kept their original sequence, with the routing changing thereafter.

Revised Presidents Cup Routing

The second hole at Medinah Country Club — There is a new routing for the Presidents Cup

It’s not just a transformed layout that awaits the Presidents Cup players - there is also an unfamiliar routing for the match.

The action will begin on what is usually the fifth hole, with matches that require all 18 holes finishing on what is ordinarily the fourth.

But why is that? The PGA Tour has changed the routing to ensure the water holes around Lake Kadijah feature prominently in the closing stages of matches.

Starting matches on the regular fifth hole also improves spectator access.

A Unique Quartet

Hale Irwin with the US Open trophy — Medinah will be the first club to host the US Open, PGA Championship, Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup

The moment the Presidents Cup gets underway at Medinah, it will mark another milestone in the club’s history, and not just because it will be the first time it hosts the match.

It will also become the only club to have hosted editions of the US Open, the PGA Championship, the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup.

Medinah Country Club location:

Medinah is located in the south-west suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, around a 30-minute drive from O'Hare International airport.

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories.

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game.

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course.

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.