The palmetto golf club is a relic from the early days of american golf. Palmetto was built in 1892 by thomas hitchcock, who also laid out a modest four-hole golf course, which was soon enlarged to nine holes by herbert leeds (the architect and a founding member of the myopia hunt club). The course was expanded to 18 holes in 1895 by herbert leeds and james mackrell, palmetto's first golf professional. Since then, a number of architects, including donald ross, alister mackenzie, rees jones, and, most recently, gil hanse, have modified and fine-tuned the course at palmetto.

The chicago golf club is the country's oldest 18-hole golf course currently in existence, and the palmetto golf club will actually claim to be the country's second oldest golf course.

The palmetto green complexes are a pleasure, and their new scale is a product of gil hanse's renovation work, which moved the putting surfaces outwards to great advantage when using the existing mounds. Under hanse's leadership, the bunkers were also reworked.

Ben hogan thought holes 3, 4 and 5 were the best back-to-back par fours he'd ever played, thanks to the course's outstanding two-shot holes on the outer side. In addition, hogan is said to have classified palmetto's 3rd, 5th, and 13th holes among his top 18 favorite holes.