Augusta National of Midwest: Rich Harvest Farms can test world’s best

Chicagoland has dozens of outstanding golf courses, many of which can host top-tier events, such as Medinah No. 3, Olympia Fields, and Butler National.

That also includes Rich Harvest Farms, the beautiful Jerry Rich-designed layout in Sugar Grove, a small, quaint midwestern town roughly 45 miles west of Downtown Chicago.

When heading out to this golf course on the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway, you notice that the expressway lights become less frequent, the number of cars dwindle, and rural farmland becomes more prevalent. You are suddenly in America’s heartland, the region that helps feed and nourish the country, and well out of the shadows of the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building.

Surely, a picture-perfect golf course could not exist somewhere among the corn, cattle, and cabbage.

But one does.

When you arrive at the front gates at Rich Harvest Farms, a friendly security guard welcomes you into a beautiful oasis among the farmland. You quickly realize that not a blade of grass is out of place, and every tree looks like it belongs in the Garden of Eden. Beautiful flowers bloom everywhere, too.

Charlie Dahlin/Rich Harvest Farms

No wonder why this place is referred to as the ‘Augusta National of the Midwest.’ The Rich Harvest Farms caddies even don the full-length white bibs, similar to what golf fans see at The Masters every year.

And yet, Rich, a computer billionaire who bought this captivating piece of property in 1985, did not originally intend to build a golf course here.

“I wanted to build a golf hole, where I could hit some wedge shots to a green and practice. But I didn’t have a whole interest beyond that,” Rich said.

“I just cut some grass, so I could hit 70 yards or 100 yards.”

A couple of years later, in 1987, he decided to get a little more creative and expand his practice area. He added a few more holes and created multiple teeing areas, allowing him to play each of his three greens from different angles and lengths.

But Rich quickly got bored with that. So he decided to expand upon this little course for himself. He then spent the next 10 years painting his 18-hole masterpiece.

“Wherever I play, one of the things I always do is look at the design of the golf holes. I remember when I played Augusta for the first time, I thought, ‘What was Bobby Jones thinking of when he designed Augusta National?’ And as I played every hole, I could see what he was thinking about,” Rich said.

“Bobby Jones was a great amateur player, but he was not a golf course designer. And I often thought, ‘If Bobby Jones can design Augusta National, I can design Rich Harvest Farms.’ So over a period of 10 years, we built the 18 holes.”

Charlie Dahlin/Rich Harvest Farms

The Course

From the very back tees, Rich Harvest Farms plays to 7,704 yards—a length often employed in a U.S. Open. It can test the best players on the planet, despite the otherworldly distance gains the game has seen over the past quarter-century. But it already challenges the next generation of professional golfers, as the Northern Illinois Men’s and Women’s Golf teams practice at Rich Harvest Farms.

A sign in the pavilion even reads, “The Amateurs who turn Pro… play at Rich Harvest Farms.”

It’s no wonder the course has such a prestigious history of hosting marquee events since its founding in 1998. That includes the 2017 NCAA Division I Men and Women’s Golf Championships and numerous other collegiate events.

In 2009, Rich Harvest Farms hosted the Solheim Cup, with unbelievable crowds flocking to Sugar Grove to see the best female players in the world. The Americans won that year, 16-to-12, thanks to a superb performance from Michelle Wie, who won 3.5 points to lead the competition.

Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

A few years later, the club welcomed the 2015 Western Amateur, which saw Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa miss the cut, a testament to how difficult this course can play.

“Off the tee is key,” Rich said when asked what his course prioritizes. “You have to keep yourself in the short grass to go after these greens. But a poor drive will not allow you to do that.”

Indeed, this golf course requires not only length but also accuracy off the tee. Being out of position will lead to a long day, as the thick, healthy rough that lines it will punish any wayward drive. Plenty of trees are in the way, too.

Speaking of trees, Rich Harvest Farms’ Signature Hole, the dogleg left, 388-yard par-4 3rd hole, used to have a tree sitting right in the middle of the fairway.

Rich figured that a tree that bisected the fairway offered a stark departure from most holes while challenging the players. But it certainly befuddled one of Rich’s best friends, the legendary Sam Snead.

Charlie Dahlin/Rich Harvest Farms

So, after building the golf course, Rich, who met Snead at Pine Tree Golf Club in Florida, invited the seven-time major champion to play his newly constructed golf course. When they arrived at the third hole, Snead gave Rich a confused look and asked him, “Where should I hit this, Jerry?”

Rich then responded by saying that Snead should hit it right at the base of the tree, which would give him a clear shot into the green on this dogleg left. Snead did just that, as his tee shot landed right into the “crotch” of the tree. So, Snead, one of the best golfers ever, backhanded his second shot away from the tree, with his ball landing a couple of feet from the tree trunk. He then hit his third shot on the green and knocked it in for a miraculous par, thus leading Rich to name the 3rd hole, “Snead’s Crotch.” That tree has since come down, but the legend still lives on.

Every hole stands out at Rich Harvest Farms, but one that immediately comes to mind is the gorgeous par-3 14th hole, colloquially called “5 Silver,” as Rich refers to his two nine-hole tracks as “Gold” and “Silver,” which you can play in whatever order.

Inspired by the 12th hole at Augusta, the 14th at Rich Harvest Farms has water in front of the green and a pencil-thin putting surface. A bunker, which is similar to the one that perches above Rae’s Creek in Georgia, also guards the middle of the green. But this green at Rich Harvest Farms has plenty more undulation than the one it takes after at Augusta. Three-putting is very easy to do—just ask the author—as a large swale in the middle of the green leaves little room for error.

Rich Harvest Farms

But all in all, most of the greens at Rich Harvest Farms employ numerous bumps and humps, sloping in every direction, just like Augusta. Hence, finding the fairway is crucial because you need to have spin to stop your shots on the greens. And you can only put spin on the ball from the fairway.

“It’s a good golf course,” said Cameron Smith ahead of a LIV Golf event held at Rich Harvest Farms in 2023.

“I think being in the fairway is pretty key around here. The trees aren’t too nice. And the greens are quite slopey, and if you get in the wrong spot around the greens, you’re looking at 5 or 6 pretty quick.”

Rich Harvest Farms hosted a pair of LIV Golf events in 2022 and 2023, won by Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau, respectively. The Saudi-backed circuit certainly has had its fair dose of controversy, but it also employs some of the best players in the world.

Hence, with the demise of the Western Open, and since major championship golf does not visit the Chicago area often, Rich decided to host a LIV Golf event in his backyard.

It turned out to be a great success as Rich Harvest Farms once again flexed its muscles, testing the world’s best, similar to how the Blue Monster at Doral continues to do to this day.

Although Rich drew inspiration from Jones, Snead, and his good friend Bob Murphy, legendary architect Dick Wilson enlightened him the most. Wilson designed the Blue Monster at Doral, Pine Tree, and Bay Hill in Orlando. So, when you play Rich Harvest Farms, you will notice that the bunkering is quite similar to these Florida courses. Most of the greens are elevated, too, a big part of Wilson’s forte.

Charlie Dahlin/Rich Harvest Farms

Giving Back

Rich has great pride in the golf course he has built and the tournaments he has hosted, but he is most proud of the Kids Golf Foundation of Illinois, an organization he started to introduce golf to underserved kids in the area.

But this all came about because of a critical moment that happened to him when he was growing up in Wood Dale, Illinois, at the age of 10.

“Somebody had mentioned to me that I could make some money caddying. Of course, being 10 years old, I had no idea what caddying was all about. It was at Brookwood Country Club on Addison Road, and we lived about four miles away. So I rode my bike, parked my bike, and stood around these buildings for a few minutes, and then an individual came out of one of the buildings,” Rich said.

“He walked behind the building and came out with a pull-cart. He put this golf bag, which I did not know what a golf bag was at the time, on this cart, and he gave me two minutes of instruction. I pulled this cart for a woman for nine holes, and when we got all done, she gave me a dollar and a quarter.

“Back then, I was the happiest kid in the world. I didn’t know if it was a tip or if that was the wage. But I have told this story many, many times because it wasn’t the dollar and a quarter it wasn’t Jerry Rich pulling the pull cart, it was this individual that gave me the opportunity because he knew I knew nothing about golf. He could have very easily said, ‘Hey, kid, get out of here.’ But he didn’t. He gave me that opportunity, and because of that, 30 years later, when I built the estate, I wanted to return the favor he gave me by starting my Kids Golf Foundation. Now, we touch over 8,00 kids per year in the state of Illinois.”

Since its inception in 1998, the Kids Golf Foundation has reached over 275,000 children in the Land of Lincoln, giving each one an opportunity to learn the game of golf. But the true value of this program are the life lessons each child learns and the tools they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

“It is the game of golf, but [we] also teach them how to apply these life lessons when they go out [in their communities],” said Mary Timm, a site coordinator of the Kids Golf Foundation.

“We have had hundreds of kids go through the program, and it is so fun to see them own it. They take ownership of those life lessons as they apply them to the game of golf: honesty, integrity; not only beginning, but following through and finishing.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.