Medinah’s Presidents Cup redesign turns the course into a match-play puzzle

Golf Digest’s Sept. 18 look at Medinah Country Club’s No. 3 course makes the 2026 Presidents Cup feel like a new test even for viewers who remember the property from the 2012 Ryder Cup. The event begins Sept. 24, and the PGA Tour’s official schedule lists five competition days through Sept. 27. The most visible change is physical: the course was remodeled by Australian design firm OCM, led by Geoff Ogilvy, who will captain the International team.

The work reshaped fairways and greens, removed trees, added bunkers and restored a more open version of Tom Bendelow’s original landscape. Golf Digest reports that the project ran through 2023 and 2024. The result is still more than 7,500 yards, so driving remains part of the test, but players have more recovery choices when they miss. That matters in match play, where a player can choose a conservative hole strategy based on the opponent’s position instead of simply protecting a medal-play score.

Lake Kadijah is where the redesign becomes easiest to understand. The old course used several par 3s that sent shots directly over the water. OCM kept the second hole as a strong lake-crossing par 3, but replaced the old cross-water 13th with a hole that runs beside the shoreline, leaving the water on the right. A new 17th crosses the lake in the opposite direction to a raised green, with four bunkers framing the target. The new 16th is a diagonal, risk-reward par 4 that can tempt long hitters to attack, while the redesigned 18th is nearly 50 yards longer than its predecessor.

That sequence changes how a match can turn late. A player who reaches the new 16th with a lead can lay back and force an opponent to take the risk. A player who trails may need to challenge the lake before the closing hole. The new 17th then asks for a precise decision over water, and the longer 18th can punish a weak drive or reward a final fairway found under pressure. Those are match-play choices rather than abstract renovation details.

The routing will change the event’s rhythm, too. Matches will begin on the fifth hole rather than the first. Golf Digest says that arrangement brings the original 16th, 17th and 18th into the middle of the match as holes 12, 13 and 14, while the former second becomes the 16th. The strongest finishing stretch therefore arrives earlier, and the course’s most dangerous lake shots can decide a match before players reach the official 18th.

The Presidents Cup schedule confirms the practical setting around that design. Thursday’s opening matches begin after a 9 a.m. gate opening, Friday’s round starts later, and Saturday carries two sessions. Sunday’s singles start at 11:02 a.m. and run until 1:19 p.m. before the closing ceremony. The tournament format remains subject to change, but the course’s fixed features already give captains a strategic problem: how aggressively to use players who can drive the new risk-reward holes and how to pair partners who can recover around larger, more varied greens.

Medinah’s history supplies the emotion, but the redesign supplies the new story. The 2012 Ryder Cup comeback is still part of the venue’s identity, yet the 2026 Presidents Cup will ask players to navigate a layout that no longer follows the same visual and strategic script. The saved Golf Digest post points to an alternative routing; the reporting behind it shows why that choice matters. Viewers should watch the lake holes and the first matches through the fifth-hole start, because the course’s biggest decisions may arrive well before the familiar closing stretch.