The majesty of Medinah

It was only after he had won the British Open at St Andrews, that the remarkable dominance of Nick Faldo in the major championships of 1990 could be fully appreciated. For, had he sunk a 12-foot birdie putt on Medinah's 18th a month previously, Faldo might have gone on to equal the unique achievement of Ben Hogan, as US Masters, US Open and British Open champion in the same year.

As things turned out, the Englishman was tied third at Medinah. So, by the time Wayne Grady had captured the US PGA at Shoal Creek on August 12th of that year, Faldo's record for the four "majors" was: first, tied third, first and tied 19th. Nobody has since come close to matching that achievement.

Medinah 1990 will be recalled for an amazing scene at the finishing hole, where Hale Irwin sank a 45-foot birdie putt and then did a somewhat premature lap of honour around the green, touching hands, it seemed, with every spectator. But Faldo was among those players still on the course capable of matching Irwin's target of 280.

In fact, the Englishman tied with him after birdies at the 11th and 14th, but went on to three-putt the 16th for his only bogey of the day. It meant he needed to birdie the last to get into a playoff. And as the 12-foot putt headed for the hole, it seemed as if he would do it, only for the ball to veer away to the right at the last moment.

The upshot was that Mike Donald tied with Irwin which meant returning the following day for an 18-hole play-off. And when they were still level after 90 holes, Irwin claimed his third US Open title at the first hole of sudden-death, by rolling in a 10-foot birdie putt.

It had been an occasion worthy of one of the most majestic settings in American golf. Now, after playing host to the 1949 US Open (won by Cary Middlecoff), the 1975 US Open (won by Lou Graham), the 1988 US Senior Open (won by Gary Player) and the 1990 US Open (won by Irwin), Medinah No 3 course is set to stage the USPGA Championship, starting on Thursday.

Medinah came into being as a monument to the beliefs of a group of Chicago Shriners, or to give them their full title, Nobles of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of North America. In 1925, they bought 640 acres of land and set about building a club which would ultimately consist of three golf courses, a polo field, an amphitheatre, a gun club, an archery range, an equestrian club and a ski jump.

The centrepiece became its enormous clubhouse, which took four years to build and is reminiscent in design of some of the mosques of the Byzantine era. Built at a cost of $600,000 it is now estimated to have a replacement value in the region of $30 million. Given those sort of statistics, it will come as no surprise that Medinah is one of the biggest country clubs in the world. Its three courses employ 200 workers and 300 caddies; the golf shop has a full-time staff of 30 and the estate is home to 18,000 trees, each of which is catalogued and tagged by type and age.

All of the club's original members were Shriners, which, as a purely American phenomenon, is an offshoot of Europe's Freemasons who can trace their lineage back to the construction of Solomon's temple. They see themselves essentially as masons who want to have more fun and they express their enthusiasm in oriental costumes, motifs, fezzes and marching groups.

Though they are not a religious organisation, Shriners' activities are essentially philanthropic. For instance, they support almost 20 children's hospitals and three burn centres in the US.

The clubhouse was built to a design by Richard G Schmidt who, after almost two years of research in Europe and the Middle East, mixed Byzantine, Italianate, Oriental and Louis XIV concepts in a massive brick structure.

Tom Bendelow, who was hired by the club as golf-course architect, was noted for making plaster scale models of greens in his basement and supplementing his designs with drainage schemes and irrigation plans. In the event, the No 1 course was opened for play in September 1925 and No 2 was completed in 1928.

Meanwhile, a strong women's section was formed within the club and money was set aside for the construction of "a sporty little course that will become famous the country over, to and for women." But Bendelow's creation, measuring 6,215 yards, was clearly too difficult for the women of that era. Indeed, one observer wrote: "Only excellent or par golfers would enjoy it."

So it was that No 2 was given over to the women while No 3 gained such a distinguished reputation that by 1933 it was rated among the top-10 courses in the US. Yet its difficulty didn't deter Britain's Joyce Wethered, whose remarkable 77 there in 1934, remains the course record for women.

It went on to became the venue for the 1937 Chicago Open which offered an unheard of professional purse of $10,000. Gene Sarazen emerged triumphant with a score of 290. After the 1975 US Open, however, the general view was that Medinah No 3 lacked a spacious, challenging finishing hole, worthy of a major venue. The then 18th was some way short of that standard and could seat a maximum of only 700 spectators.

The upshot was that local architect Roger Packard was employed to reconstruct the entire back nine. In the process, the most famous hole on the course, the old 17th, remained unchanged, except that it became the new 13th and the old 13th became the dog-leg 16th.

A completely new, 168-yard 17th was designed by Packard and is played over Lake Kadijah, which was named after one of Mohammed's wives. And the new 18th became a 440-yard par four with seating space for 5,000, who enjoyed Irwin's histrionics.

But there have been other, more radical changes at Medinah since its early days. Gone are the originally-planned toboggan runs, roller skating, archery and bowling facilities. While tennis has been added, the emphasis has shifted over the years from a country club with a broad range of activities, to a more golf-orientated facility.

The first touring professionals attached to the club were the distinguished trio of Al Espinosa, Tommy Armour and Ralph Guldahl. Of these, twice US Open champion Guldahl, probably best captured the mood of the place when he said: "I sometimes wonder if Medinah members are as proud of their club as they have a right to be."

He added: "Each year, my own wonderment grows at the magnificence of Medinah and its surroundings." Which are currently being revealed to a new audience among the competitors for this week's championship, including Ireland's Darren Clarke.