The Card
- Venue: Medinah CC (No. 3)
- Where: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Architect: Tom Bendelow
- Scorecard: Par 70, 7,548 yards
- Fairways: Bentgrass
- Rough: Ryegrass
- Greens: Bentgrass
The Presidents Cup brings 24 players to Medinah on September 24, 2026. Match play changes how every number below should be read, but the underlying course is the same one that hosted a stroke-play field here, and that is the only measured record available.
The read: A 7,548-yard par 70 on bentgrass with ryegrass rough is a long, conventional test, and the scorecard alone tells you length is in play.
What Kind Of Test This Is
The difficulty profile comes from a single running in 2019, so treat it as indicative rather than settled. In that year Medinah gave up a lot. Bogey-or-worse rate sat at 11.7%, among the easiest recorded (180th hardest of 191 courses), and the penalty for missing the green was 0.65, ranking 185th of 191.
Scrambling was 65.4% in 2019, again one of the easiest figures on record, and short putting was close to automatic at 89.8% made inside 10 feet. Greens in regulation came in at 69.7% and birdie-or-better rate at 23.7%, both on the easier side of the ledger. The pieces that looked ordinary rather than soft were approach proximity (39.3 percentile), putting from outside 10 feet (16.0% made) and the penalty for missing the fairway (0.33).
The counter-argument is real: one tournament, seven seasons ago, and a course that can be set up entirely differently for a team event. Nothing here should be read as how Medinah plays today. What it does establish is that the layout has no built-in mechanism for punishing a miss.
The read: On the 2019 evidence this was a birdie course with soft edges, which in match play argues for aggression rather than survival.
The Holes
The mix is 12 par 4s, four par 3s and two par 5s. The par 4s average 460 yards and stretch from 373 to 514, with four of them measuring between 360 and 450 yards. The par 3s average 197 yards and the two par 5s average 614.
The hardest hole on record is the 6th, a 646-yard par 5 that played 0.152 over par. That is unusual and worth sitting with: a par 5 that surrenders nothing at all. Behind it are the par-3 16th at 211 yards (0.105 over) and the par-3 13th at 217 yards (0.04 over).
The giveaways run the other way. The 5th, a 479-yard par 4, played 0.696 under par, the 10th at 455 yards gave up 0.402, and the 209-yard 7th played 0.348 under. Yardage was a poor guide to difficulty here, with two of the three easiest holes measuring over 450 yards.
The read: Matches are likely to swing on the long par 3s and the 6th rather than on the closing stretch of par 4s.
Where Strokes Are Won And Lost
No stat correlations are available for any version of this course, so there is no measured figure for what Medinah rewards relative to a typical event. That gap matters and is worth stating plainly: the case below is built from the difficulty percentiles and one winner's strokes gained line, not from a skill-weighting model.
Off the tee, the 2019 numbers said accuracy was not the gate. Driving accuracy ran at 64.0%, easier than average at 131st of 193, and the penalty for missing the fairway was a middling 0.33. The penalty for lack of distance was 0.17, around tour average, which does not build a case for length as a separating skill despite the 7,548 yards.
Approach was the one area that held its own. Proximity ranked 84th hardest of 167 courses measured, essentially tour average, while almost every other category ranked easier than average. Relative to the rest of the test, iron play was where the course still asked a question.
Around the green and on the putting surface, 2019 offered little resistance. Scrambling at 65.4% and a 0.65 penalty for missing the green both sat among the softest on record, and inside 10 feet the field made 89.8%. Longer putting was the exception: 16.0% converted from outside 10 feet, ranking 101st of 167, which is ordinary rather than generous.
The read: With no correlation data to lean on, iron play is the defensible tiebreaker, because it was the only skill the 2019 course did not discount.
Courses It Resembles
By measured profile rather than reputation, the closest match is East Lake Golf Club at 87.3% similar, also a par 70 and also on the shorter side of Medinah at 7,440 yards. TPC Craig Ranch follows at 86.8% (par 72, 7,308 yards), then Harbour Town Golf Links and The Summit Club at 86.2% each, at 7,243 and 7,450 yards.
Crooked Stick GC rounds out the list at 86.1% similar and is the only comparable venue longer than Medinah, at 7,567 yards. Most of the group plays to a higher par over less ground, which is the tell: the profile match is coming from scoring behaviour, not from the scorecard. Harbour Town in particular shares nothing in length and everything in the absence of severe penalty.
The read: Form at East Lake is the most transferable signal in the group, given the shared par 70 and the highest similarity score.
What It Took To Win
There is one champion on record here. Justin Thomas won at 25 under par in 2019, gaining 1.927 on approach, 1.282 putting, 0.592 around the green and 0.378 off the tee. Approach was his strongest area by a clear margin.
One winner is not a pattern, and the 25-under total says as much about the conditions that week as about the skill set required. Still, the shape of that line matches the difficulty profile: the tee shot was worth the least, and the irons were worth the most.
The read: In a 24-man field, the numbers suggest weighting iron play over driving when picking sides, while accepting that a single 2019 data point is thin ground.
