St. Andrews: 100 years from ‘Horatio Alger story’ to 6 million rounds of golf
St. Andrews Golf & Country Club survived the Great Depression, stocked up on golf balls due to World War II rubber restrictions, outlasted the late 1970s recession and weathered the COVID-19 pandemic.
Created from farmland in 1926, the family-owned and operated golf course in West Chicago is celebrating a century of providing the public with a level of golf and amenities found at a private club.
The course was founded as a private club by investors, including Ontario native and Chicago resident Frank Hough, whose great-great-great-grandchildren work at St. Andrews during the summer.
Golf architect John McGregor designed the original “St. Andrews” course, followed in 1929 by E.B. Dearie Jr.’s “Joe Jemsek” course. Old-timers may still slip and refer to that second 18-hole layout by its original name, “Lakewood.”
“What’s important to us is that we are so thankful that our family, from 1926 on, has been able to operate and own and keep St. Andrews going,” said club President Jerry Hinckley, who, with staff architect Joe T. Jemsek, is in the fourth generation of family leadership at the club.
They are so tied to the course, and by extension its clientele, that Hinckley’s mother, current owner and CEO Marianne Jemsek Hinckley, still lives in the home her family has owned on club grounds since the 1930s.
Jerry Hinckley has tried to pinpoint St. Andrews’ opening date, but he hasn’t found it in club records. “April-ish,” he suspects.
“We started celebrating at the top of the clock, New Year’s Day,” he said.
St. Andrews is dedicating all of 2026 to its 100th anniversary. Every month during the season, owners will offer raffles for golf clubs and free rounds of golf (greens fees range from $30 to $65), as well as hole-in-one contests for a new car, trips to the 2027 U.S. Open and British Open tournaments, and a June 17 “Live on the Lawn” musical event complete with bagpipes.
About those bagpipes … Despite the name, there is no direct tie to the “Old Course” in Scotland.
“You had an onslaught of golf courses being built around the country” in the 1920s, said head ranger Dennis Maher, “and in order to build attendance, they took the name St. Andrews.”
A longtime teacher, Maher grew up next to the 17th fairway and started at St. Andrews in 1964 as a forecaddie. He was 9 and made 75 cents an hour.
“Frank (Jemsek) was my caddie master, and what a great guy. Joe (Jemsek) and Frank would treat the caddies like gold,” Maher said.
“Here’s the key to Joe’s philosophy: He wanted a public golf course to have a private course mentality.”
Joe Jemsek, who, with his wife, Grace Hough, took over management of St. Andrews in 1938 and owned it until his death in 2002, is one of Illinois’ golfing greats.
“He saw a big market with the Chicago population booming, and said, ‘I know a lot of people enjoy playing at a really nice golf club on a regular basis.’ St. Andrews really was his laboratory for doing that,” Hinckley said.
“It’s a great Horatio Alger story.”
A Ukrainian immigrant from Chicago’s South Side, Jemsek started as a caddie and then learned course management at Cog Hill. Jemsek built up St. Andrews by offering free golf lessons and starting leagues. It has led to nearly 6 million rounds of golf played there since 1926.
The club states Jemsek “invented” a number of private club amenities. The South Carolina-based National Golf Course Owners Association, calling Jemsek the “Patriarch of Public Golf,” has three different annual awards named after him.
Joe Jemsek had the foresight to enlist LPGA co-founder Patty Berg as the club’s head pro for 50 years. He sponsored several golfers on the PGA Tour and has hosted luminaries such as Bill Murray, Jesse Owens, Ernie Banks, Sam Snead, President George H.W. Bush and Mayor Richard J. Daley.
Former West Chicago High School teacher, coach and athletic director Butch Hansen, a course starter responsible for smooth play from the first tee onward, has witnessed much of it.
He began caddying at St. Andrews in 1950, shifted to maintenance, and after his 1993 retirement became a starter.
Some evenings, after the crowd dies down, the 88-year-old still goes out to shoot nine holes.
He says beware the big greens that yield long putts on undulating surfaces.
“This is the one that gives everybody trouble, No. 17 on the Lakewood course,” Hansen said.
He means the Joe Jemsek course, of course. After 76 years, he’s due a mulligan.