Congressional, Blue Course

The OSS took the place over in 1943, training agents on the golf course and housing them when they came back. Two Indiana Republican congressmen, Oscar Bland and O.R. Luhring, founded the club in 1921, and it opened on 23 May 1924 with Herbert Hoover as its first president; Harding, Wilson and Taft were made honorary members. The Blue Course has held four men's majors: Ken Venturi's 1964 U.S. Open in oppressive heat, Dave Stockton's 1976 PGA Championship, Ernie Els in 1997 and Rory McIlroy's 268 in 2011. Chun In-gee won the Women's PGA here in 2022.

The club changed its own finish, more than once. Devereux Emmet's 1924 course ended on a par three, over the lake to a green in a natural amphitheatre below the clubhouse. For the 1964 Open and the 1976 PGA, two Gold Course holes were spliced in so the Blue's par-four 17th could play last. In 1997 the USGA used the original order, and the U.S. Open finished on a par three for the first time. Before 2011 Rees Jones reversed that hole for good: the 523-yard par-four 17th is now the permanent 18th, and the reversed par three, 218 yards, plays as the 10th. The ground around that green still rises on every side, and a gallery can stand all the way around it.