(FORTUNE Magazine) – A quick glance at the list of former U.S. Open sites reveals several grand old courses that time has passed by: Myopia Hunt Club, Scioto, Interlachen, Philadelphia Country Club, Olympia Fields...

Check that. Olympia Fields, a long-forgotten club on the unglamorous South Side of Chicago, has been rescued from the dustbin of history to serve as the site of the 2003 U.S. Open. The club has not hosted an Open since Johnny Farrell defeated Bobby Jones in 1928 (or a major since the 1961 PGA Championship).

It should be noted that Olympia Fields faded from view by choice. Its founders had big ambitions when the club opened, building four courses between 1915 and 1923. The No. 4 Course, now the North Course, held the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, and a pair of Western Opens by 1933. But the club's scale--and its dreams--dwindled in the 1940s, when the owners sold two courses for residential development.

After hosting the 1961 PGA Championship, the membership didn't want the hassle of putting on a major. That was a disappointment to Vince Greci, who joined in 1962. "Medinah [on the North Side of Chicago] kept having U.S. Opens, and we stood there and watched," says Greci, now the club's general chairman for the 2003 Open. "Some of us said we at least ought to try."

It took 32 years, but the lobbying paid off. In 1994 club officials approached Chicagoan Buzz Taylor, then head of the USGA's championship committee. Informed that the 1997 U.S. Senior Open was available, they took it. "We said, 'If we do a good job and you're happy, we would entertain the thought of a U.S. Open, and 2003 would be perfect,'" says Greci. Taylor told them to worry about 2003 later.

Fears that the course would not stand up as a championship test were unfounded. Graham Marsh won the Senior Open with a score of even par, and the reviews were nearly all positive.

Why not Medinah?

Medinah, another sprawling club of 1920s vintage, was the site of the three U.S. Opens held in Chicago since World War II. It last hosted in 1990, in an event that left neither the club nor the USGA high-fiving because of doubts about the course (even after a USGA-encouraged redesign). The primary bone of contention was Medinah's course setup. Medinah always prided itself that its No. 3 Course was one of golf's toughest, and a redesign had made it into a true monster, with back tees stretching to 7,336 yards.

But the late P.J. Boatwright, the USGA official in charge of setting up the course, thought that was too long--this was before technology and Tiger Woods turned the 300-yard drive into a routine matter--and Medinah was edited to 7,195 yards for the Open.

Still, the course was playing as hard in the practice rounds as anybody wanted, so Boatwright ordered the rough trimmed. Wednesday-night rain changed everything. The pros took advantage of the soft conditions, and the 36-hole cut came at an Open record one over par. A total of 28 players broke par for 72 holes, and Hale Irwin beat Mike Donald in a playoff after both finished at eight under.

So in 1995, Medinah's members reacted positively when the PGA of America approached the club about hosting a PGA Championship and the plum prize, a Ryder Cup. By accepting the 1999 and 2006 PGA Championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup, Medinah effectively took itself out of Open consideration for some time.

The USGA, however, wanted to return to Chicago. Its residents have been supportive of tournaments, and it's a good market for selling corporate tents. (No small thing: The U.S. Open is the main source of revenue for the USGA, which loses money on every other championship, except sometimes on the Senior Open.) The only problem--an odd one, considering all the fine layouts in the area--was finding a course.

Chicago Golf Club is ranked 19th in Golf magazine's top 100 courses in the U.S., but its members have no desire to open up their private enclave. Next comes Medinah (31st), followed by Shoreacres (37th), too short for an Open at 6,318 yards. After that it's down to Olympia Fields at 75th, a low ranking for an Open site. The only other Chicago-area course in the top 100 is Butler National (92nd), ineligible because it doesn't allow women to become members.

One more course was in the picture. Cog Hill's Dubsdread Course, considered one of the nation's top public courses, has hosted the PGA Tour's Western Open since 1991. The dream of its developer and owner, the late Joe Jemsek, was to hold the U.S. Open.

In 1997, Cog Hill and Olympia Fields put in bids for the 2003 Open. Since the USGA had stated it wished to bring the U.S. Open to public courses and Jemsek was connected to the organization--he was a member of the executive committee for two years--Cog Hill seemed the likely candidate.

The USGA didn't see it that way. "Cog Hill was problematic because of the Western Open [played just weeks after the U.S Open]," says Mike Davis, the USGA's director of the U.S. Open. Cog Hill's contract with the Western allows for a one-year move should Cog Hill host a major, but the USGA wasn't comfortable causing a disruption.

Two months after Olympia Fields passed its 1997 Senior Open audition, Cog Hill hosted the U.S. Amateur. It didn't go smoothly. Four inches of rain shortly before the start of the championship left some in the USGA questioning the drainage. "I don't think the U.S. Amateur convinced anybody that this was the place for the Open," says USGA deputy executive director Mike Butz, who writes the staff report on each Open candidate.

On to Olympia Fields

The big question--literally--was whether Olympia Fields had the space necessary to make the course long enough. Affirmative: The course has been stretched by 283 yards, to a 7,190-yard, par-70 layout; 13 holes have been lengthened. The modernization by Mark Mungeam, a low-profile architect who had done a minor renovation several years earlier, also deepened most of the fairway and greenside bunkers.

Satisfied that the club was willing to take steps to improve the course, the USGA turned to ancillary concerns. The first was gallery flow. "There are a lot of one-sided spectator holes, and the routing makes it difficult to move spectators through in a few places," says Davis.

Since most of the problems were on the back nine, the USGA reversed the nines for the Open (with the exception of the 1st and 10th holes), leaving more space for grandstands and movement on the finishing stretch. Despite the trouble spots, the course isn't exactly cramped. The USGA determined that Olympia Fields will be able to accommodate 35,000 spectators, typical for an Open.

The fact that there's a train station on the club's doorstep alleviated concerns about the club's location, 45 minutes from downtown in an area with few hotels. Space for parking, tents, and compounds was no problem. The club's strong suit is its big clubhouse, originally built for the large membership of a 72-hole spread.

Olympia Fields benefited from another factor--the club picked the right year. The USGA's preference was to return to the Midwest in 2003, but courses like Medinah and Hazeltine National (outside Minneapolis) had hitched their wagons to the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup. Other clubs, like Crooked Stick near Indianapolis, were deemed less worthy than Olympia Fields.

In November 1997 the USGA made its decision. Olympia Fields, the course nobody really expected to host another Open, is doing just that. "It's a classic golf course--it's pretty good," says Taylor. "Is Olympia Fields going to be the best Open venue we've ever had? Gosh, no. Is it going to be a strong championship test? Gosh, yes."

While the course is only 24 yards shorter than Bethpage (site of last year's Open), length off the tee is not expected to be a major factor at Olympia Fields, which doesn't have as many ultralong par-4s. Typical of an old-style course, it has plenty of character in its difficult, sloping greens. Olympia Fields is like Bethpage in one respect: It's an unknown quantity. Will the scores be low? Will they be high? Nobody knows.

Even the clubs that were passed up are eager to see what happens. "It would be easier to be upset about this one if I didn't like Olympia Fields so much," says Frank Jemsek, who took over as president and owner of contender Cog Hill upon his father's death last year. "But it's always been one of my favorite courses."

Feedback? atlast@fortunemail.com