Arthur Hills' Legacy Shines at LIV Golf Individual Championship

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The LIV Golf individual season concludes this week as the league heads to Bolingbrook Golf Club just outside of Chicago. In the prior two seasons they visited Rich Harvest Farms, but weren’t able to visit again due to some ongoing personal issues affecting the owner. In a last minute venue change, they ended up at Bolingbrook Golf Club, designed by the late Arthur Hills’ in the early 2000s.

Bolingbrook Golf Club will be playing a touch over 7100 yards for the individual championship. Although his name won’t often come up alongside Tom Fazio, Alister Mackenzie, Donald Ross, or Pete Dye, course Architect Arthur Hills is undoubtedly one of the all-time greats. He emphasized a playable but rewarding course design, often forcing players into a high risk, high reward scenario.

His portfolio includes a myriad of styles of golf course architecture as he has either designed, or been a part of renovating over 200 courses worldwide. As his career went on, he became increasingly known for designing some of the countries greatest publicly accessible venues. Hills’ courses are designed to be playable for golfers of all level, but still present a tough challenge to the best in the world. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting, and then dive into this week’s venue at Bolingbrook Golf Club:

The Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay Golf Links is a links style course that, incredibly, is only about 30 miles south of San Francisco. This venue played host to the LPGA Samsung World Championship in 2008.

Ironbridge Club, an alpine golf course located about 3 hours west of Denver, Colorado in Glenwood Springs. This course features some of the most stunning panoramic views you’ll ever come across on a golf course. Locals often refer to this course as a hidden gem, a world class course that offers unique challenges and incredible views.

The Virtues Golf Club in Nashport, Ohio highlights Hills’ dedication to blending beautiful course architecture in with the natural surrounding landscape. His utilization of the rolling hills, forests, and water hazards make for a fantastic course that offers a tough challenge to all players. Frequently featured on the Top 100 Public Golf Courses in the United States, The Virtues Golf Cllub represents some of the best work of Arthur Hills’ career. Virtues has played host to mane US Open Qualifiers, Ohio Amateur Championships, and numerous collegiate events.

And while not the most well known, the host of this year’s LIV Golf Individual Championship, Bolingbrook Golf Club, presents what Arthur Hills’ may be most well known for, a publicly accessible course designed to be playable by all and still be challenging for the best. Bolingbrook was designed in tandem with Steve Forrest. The course features wide fairways making it very appealing off the tee, but strategic bunker placement coupled with water hazards on 13 holes will punish stray shots.

Bolingbrook Golf Club will host the LIV Golf Individual Championship where Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson and more look to fight for position on the individual leaderboard and position their teams for the Team Championship in Dallas. The Individual Championship takes place September 13th - September 15th and the Team Championship follows the week after.