Golf

In 1921, William Reay and several friends decided to build an 18-hole golf course on his farm in Deerfield, Illinois, to be named Briergate Country Club. After acquiring several outlying land parcels that expanded the property to about 160 acres, Reay hired the highly-regarded English golf course architecture firm Colt, Alison & Morrison to design the layout. Charles Hughes Alison, who was in the U.S. working on several other golf projects, accepted the assignment. Alison completed his work on schedule, and members played their first rounds in May 1922. The very first round included famed amateur golfer Chick Evans, who remarked about the course, “…it is alluringly interesting wherever you chance to be upon it.” He was particularly impressed with the par 3 holes and the unusually large greens, describing them as “…the most extraordinary greens I have ever chipped to.”

In the late 1930s, Briergate faced financial difficulties and was acquired by Robert Bruce Harris and his brother Frank. Robert, also a golf course architect, made minor modifications to reduce maintenance costs, but the Alison design remained largely unchanged. The Harris brothers operated the daily fee course until 1958, when a group of close friends and golf enthusiasts entered into a long-term lease, took over the club, once again turned it private, and renamed it Briarwood Country Club. In 1977, Briarwood’s members voted to acquire the property from the Harris family estate. In recent years, as the game and technology have evolved, the golf course has undergone changes addressing distance, turf grass conditioning, irrigation systems, and modifications to several tee and green complexes, and fairways.  All changes have aimed to preserve the brilliance of Charles Alison’s original design.