Medinah No. 3 entered the 2026 Presidents Cup on September 24-27, 2026, as a very different course from the one many players and viewers remembered from earlier major events. The 2023-2024 renovation by Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking, and Ashley Mead of OCM did not simply polish bunker edges or adjust turf lines. It changed corridors, sightlines, green scale, lake strategy, and the way match-play decisions were likely to be framed.

Because the event had already taken place by October 12, 2026, the fair way to assess the project is not as a preview but as a design review with limited public performance data in the supplied record. The available evidence supports a clear reading: Medinah Country Club’s Course No. 3 was rebuilt to ask more varied questions, not merely to defend par through narrowness and rough. Golf Digest described the renovation as a major transformation led by OCM, with the course becoming “unrecognizable to most” who knew its prior form Golf Digest reported.

How Medinah No. 3 Changed For Match Play

The official Presidents Cup course profile listed the revamped course at 7,564 yards and par 72, with larger greens, larger bunkers, wider fairways, open sightlines, and extensive long-fescue rough the Presidents Cup course overview noted. Those details matter because match play rewards different pressures than stroke play. A player can lose one hole through a poor decision, but bold lines can also win a hole outright. Width, if paired with angle-sensitive greens and hazards, can promote choice rather than ease.

Medinah No. 3 And Width Off The Tee

The strategic value of wider fairways depends on what the player gains after finding one side or the other. A wide corridor without meaningful approach angles can soften a course. A wide corridor tied to green orientation, fescue edges, and bunker placement can create a more demanding decision: choose the conservative line and accept a less useful angle, or take on a hazard to improve the next shot.

That is the main design claim behind the overhaul. The official profile’s reference to wider fairways, open sightlines, long fescue, larger greens, and larger bunkers points toward a course intended to show options from the tee rather than hide them behind tree walls. For match play, visibility often adds pressure. Players can see the aggressive line and the penalty beside it. That can be more revealing than a narrow chute where the only rational choice is to hit straight and hope.

Greens, Bunkers, And The Second Shot

The enlarged green complexes were not just an aesthetic decision. Bigger greens can create more hole locations, more long putts, and more short-sided misses if the surrounds are shaped with intent. In match play, that can split strategy sharply. A player trailing in a match may fire toward a tucked hole location, while a player already in strong position may use the broader putting surface and force the opponent to answer.

The larger bunkers described in the official profile also change how width functions. If fairways are wider but sand is more visible and more expansive, the player is not automatically being offered relief. Instead, the course presents broader playing fields with clearer hazards. That can be especially useful in team formats, where one partner may choose a safer route while the other pursues a more direct angle.

Routing, Lake Kadijah, And Pressure Points

Routing is where the redesign became most visible. Golf Digest reported that the first six holes remained in their historic positions, while the sequence changed substantially from the seventh hole onward. The same report stated that holes formerly numbered 14 through 16 were removed and replaced by two new par 4s, the 14th and 15th, plus a new diagonal par-4 16th over Lake Kadijah. That is not a minor sequencing edit. It shifts the course’s dramatic weight toward a lake-centered stretch with a different risk profile.

The Lake Kadijah Shift

Water hazards are often overused as simple punishment, but the better lake holes ask a question about angle, carry, and distance control. The new diagonal par-4 16th over Lake Kadijah, as described by Golf Digest, appears designed around that kind of question. A diagonal carry is rarely just about power. It asks how much line the player wants to take on and whether the safer side leaves a more awkward approach.

The par-3 changes reinforce that shift. Golf Digest reported that the old cross-water par-3 13th and 17th were eliminated. Their replacements included a new 13th playing parallel to Lake Kadijah at about 153 yards, with shorter options around 140 to 120 yards, and a new 17th crossing the lake in a different direction that can stretch beyond 200 yards and is flanked by bunkers. That pairing creates two different kinds of pressure: one hole using the lake as a companion hazard, the other using it as a carry requirement.

The Closing-Hole Reframe

The new 18th, described by Golf Digest as a 487-yard par 4, nearly 50 yards longer than its predecessor, also restored a finishing hole in the corridor of Tom Bendelow’s original 18th. Its tees were placed across the lake. That matters because closing architecture should not only be difficult; it should be legible under stress. A long par 4 with water influencing the teeing ground and corridor can force players to commit to a shape rather than steer the ball defensively.

For readers seeking more about this redesign alongside broader venue coverage, Sports Wire News is a related site in the same network, providing additional insights. Within this site, a closer companion read is the post on Medinah No. 3 changes, which focuses on how the post-renovation course read after the Presidents Cup.

Restoration Choices And Visual Character

The renovation also carried a restoration argument. Golf Digest reported that the designers used aerial photos from the 1930s to re-establish parts of the circa-1928 vision associated with founder Tom Bendelow. The work included exposing meadows, removing trees, especially around holes 6 through 9, reshaping landforms, and restoring broader vistas.

Tree Removal And Sightline Discipline

Tree removal in golf architecture can be misunderstood. It is not automatically a move toward easier golf. On many older American parkland courses, tree growth over decades narrowed corridors in ways the original routing did not intend. Removing trees can bring wind, contour, and diagonal ground lines back into play. It can also make hazards more visible, which changes the psychology of a shot.

At Medinah, the reported opening of meadows and vistas appears consistent with the official course profile’s emphasis on open sightlines and long fescue. The result is a course where the eye can read more of the hole from the tee. That clarity can be demanding: a player sees the target, the preferred angle, and the hazard all at once. The architect’s task is to make that picture honest without making it obvious.

History Without Imitation

The use of 1930s aerial photography does not mean the course became a museum piece. The evidence suggests a mixed approach: restoration of broader visual and spatial ideas, paired with new holes, new lake angles, larger bunkers, and modern tournament yardage. That balance is often necessary for championship venues. A course can respect its early design language while still accommodating current hitting distances and spectator needs.

Golf Digest also connected the redesign context to criticism after Justin Thomas shot 25-under at the 2019 BMW Championship and to the course’s decline in national ranking by 2023. Those facts do not prove that the old course lacked merit in all respects. They do show why Medinah’s leadership had reason to reassess whether the prior version still produced enough variety and resistance for elite play.

What The Overhaul Means For Players

For elite players, the renovated course appears to shift emphasis from simple accuracy to placement, trajectory, and approach planning. That is a meaningful distinction. Narrow rough-lined golf often sorts players by who can keep the ball in play. Strategic golf asks whether a player can select the correct side of a wide target and accept the next-shot consequence.

Risk Management In Team Formats

In Presidents Cup formats, course design interacts with partner strategy. Wider landing areas can allow one player to choose a safer tee shot while the other tests a more aggressive line. Larger greens can reward conservative center-green targets, but only if the opponent has not already created a close birdie chance. Water around Lake Kadijah likely sharpened those decisions on holes where carry, angle, and distance control were part of the question.

This is where Medinah No. 3 likely became more interesting as a match-play venue. A course does not need every hole to be severe. It needs enough holes where two sound players can choose different routes and both choices remain defensible. The reported routing changes around the lake, paired with wider fairways and fescue edges, support that kind of design goal.

Recovery Rather Than Pure Punishment

The presence of long fescue rough should not be read as softness. Fescue can create uncertain lies, difficult stance conditions, and awkward recovery angles. Yet it can also permit recoveries that dense rough may not. That distinction matters because recoverable misses produce more varied golf. A player may try to advance a ball through a gap, lay back to a preferred wedge yardage, or take on a heroic shot. In match play, those choices are often as compelling as the original error.

The redesign’s wider structure, as presented in the official profile, suggests a course less dependent on one-dimensional penalty. The better question after a missed shot becomes: what is still possible, and at what cost? That is sound architecture for elite match play because it gives players agency while still exposing poor judgment.

Medinah No. 3 After The Presidents Cup

Medinah No. 3 should be judged cautiously after the September 24-27, 2026 Presidents Cup because the supplied record does not include scoring summaries, player comments, or hole-by-hole results from the matches. What can be assessed with confidence is the design intent visible in the documented changes: wider fairways, larger greens, larger bunkers, open sightlines, long fescue, restored vistas, and a rerouted Lake Kadijah sequence.

The overhaul moved the course away from a narrower, tree-framed tournament model and toward a broader strategic test. The strongest evidence is the combination of historical restoration and new risk points. OCM used early aerial references to recover scale and openness, while also inserting modern pressure through lake carries, diagonal lines, and larger hazard forms. That is not merely a cosmetic update; it changes how players plan holes.

For members and future championship observers, the key measure will be whether the course keeps producing varied decisions after the novelty fades. Based on the documented architecture, Medinah No. 3 now has more ways to ask those questions than it did before the 2023-2024 renovation. The redesign’s value rests on that strategic range: not just whether the course is harder, but whether it gives skilled players more than one credible way to solve a hole.