Draft:Lake Zurich Golf Club

Lake Zurich Golf Club is a private golf club chartered in 1895. It is located in the village of Lake Zurich, Illinois, northwest of Chicago, on the northern shore of the lake of that name.

Lake Zurich's golf course opened for play in 1895, and was designed by James Foulis of St. Andrews. It is materially the same golf course played today by Lake Zurich's members and their guests, making it among the oldest golf courses in the world surviving in their original design and location. Lake Zurich's clubhouse was designed by Jarvis Hunt and built by J.K. Cady in 1896, making it one of the oldest golf clubhouses in the United States. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. is reputed to have contributed to Lake Zurich Golf Club's landscape design.

Traditions
Befitting its history, Lake Zurich Golf Club is a bastion of both golfing and local club traditions. Scorecards still reflect "bogey" in its historical sense, and members frequently wear their red coats trimmed with green collars and cuffs to club events. A pink bench is preserved where Marilyn Monroe reportedly once sat while visiting the club with her husband, Joe DiMaggio, and a cemetery was installed in 1912 to prevent a railroad from seizing the property through eminent domain. The horse-drawn surrey wagon which used to transport members from the Barrington train station sits in the club's driveway and, until the second half of the 20th century, sheep were still used to maintain the club's fairways. St. Barnabas is Lake Zurich Golf Club's patron saint.

Membership
Limited to only 40 members, Lake Zurich Golf Club has one of the smallest and most tightly guarded membership lists in the world. However, prominent names from nearly every field, including manufacturing, politics, investments, publishing, architecture, law, advertising, medicine, education, military, etc. have been counted among Lake Zurich's membership. Membership is solely by invitation from the board of directors. The only way a guest is allowed into the club or onto its course is by member invitation, and guests must be accompanied by a member while they are at the club.