I’d take it in a heartbeat if it was in the fall. May is such a crapshoot with the weather.
A few ladies I know played Blue Hills last week though and said it was in great shape for all the abuse it took a couple weeks ago. Pretty impressive!
I think they need to get more benefit from the tour than what they are right now.
It was previously thought of, by some at least, as the marketing for the club. Well…club is full so what do we need marketing for?
I really wouldn’t really want it as an annual thing. I’d be fine if we had it every 5 years or so and it jumped between a few different spots, but I doubt something like that could be arranged.
Alternating courses would be the best scenario. Totally agree there.
Dying to come back out to Oakwood now that most everything is open.
Thoughts on the new 4 and 5?
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I’ve only been through them once, but I like 4, 5, and 14. 4 is really good imo. 15 is solid, but I preferred the old version.
Same here. Only been through once. 4 and 14 are my favorites too. 15 is fine. I get wanting to make it play longer. I did hear that the left hand trees on the corner of the dog leg are going to come down and a couple fairway bunkers are going in there. That should improve it a bit.
I’ve heard that chatter too and would be very happy with that change.
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I’ve seen you post multiple times that KC golf is terrible and I just don’t agree. You must have incredibly high expectations if so. I’ve been to a lot of cities and I’ve lived in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. KC trumps all three as far as affordable, decent, golf. Is KC the best in the country? No, it’s not, but a course in KC like Swope or Adams Pointe is $54 tops on a weekend morning tee time. My friends in Chicago and St. Louis are jealous of how easy and cheap it is to play a decent golf course here. Are the private courses on par with a lot of these cities? No, but for public golf, KC is solid. Especially the Missouri side. If I’m recommending courses to a visitor I’d go:
- Swope: Love the layout, just a fun course that can challenge everyone. Much as been said already about it. My favorite hole is #7, 2nd favorite is probably 18.
- Adams Pointe: In my opinion this is the best conditioned public track in KC with a sneaky good layout, don’t believe me? Go down I70 and play it, bent grass fairways and the course is very walkable. You’ll hit every club in the bag and it will challenge good players but isn’t overly difficult. Personally I love holes 7 and 9 on the front and 11, 13, 14, and 18 on the back. With 18 being one of the better finishing holes in KC.
- Shoal Creek: Not a great walking course, but a really fun layout. Agree that hole 9 is possibly the best par 5 in KC. Expensive in the morning on weekends.
- Winterstone: A very fun layout and also in really good shape all the time. Walkable and some good holes out here.
- Sycamore Ridge: Definitely a course you need to be on your game to play, especially the heavily wooded front 9.
I played Hillcrest yesterday, man they have done some great work out there. It’s in phenomenal shape, the staff isn’t great and they definitely are charging too much though.
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I think it’s totally fair to point out that compared to a MAJOR metro like Chicago or NYC, we’ve got it great from the perspective of not having to commute an hour just to find a golf course period.
Admittedly I’ve never played public golf outside of a handful of cities (San Diego, DFW, Austin, Minneapolis, and that might be it). Maybe it’s better said that KC underachieves with regard to the quality of golf that’s available both in the public and private. Minneapolis has a plethora of good public golf. Stephens Park in Dallas was great, as was Balboa and Coronado in SD. There’s relatively little constraints with regard to land, cost, water, and seasonality in KC, but somehow there’s nothing in town I would call great.
You’re free to disagree and have different criteria than I do. To me, if it’s not walkable day-to-day…it’s immediately DQ’d. Which leaves like a dozen courses in the entire metro. Throw out a few more with $35k+ initiations and you aren’t left with much.
Others that happily take carts every time are going to look at things much differently than I do.
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Tiffany is very underrated. It’s up there with Shoal IMO. Great tracks, although not the most ideal for walking.
I’m with @tnord on this one. Having traveled a bit this last year, Kansas City has fallen further and further down my list as good golf cities. I am including private and public options in there. We have absolutely nothing remarkable/noteworthy. Not many other major metro’s that don’t have something exceptional on either the public or private side.
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Really? Man, I thought it was crazy at $72 last year.
Kinda how I describe KC as a whole. Quite solid, but nothing remarkable. No frills. But not bottom of the barrel, either.
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Agreed. There are plenty of places to play golf and have a good time, but I would not travel from outside the metro to play anything. PD is the only course in Kansas I would get in the car and make a trip for and thats the sad truth.
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100%. I’m also from a small Kansas town so most of the options here for me are better than what I played growing up.
If you’re a person who’s traveled the country and seen plenty of courses, it almost certainly won’t knock your socks off, but for a town of ~2,000, Seneca, KS has a tremendous public track. Near where I grew up - the work they’ve done on that place doesn’t get enough credit.
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Here’s a sampling of similar sized US cities: Cleveland, Nashville, Columbus, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Portland, Austin, San Antonio, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, San Diego
I think KC is clearly a worse golf city than Columbus, Cincy, Milwaukee, MSP, and San Diego. I think it’s clearly better than the Nashville, Orlando, Tampa, the Texas cities and SLC. After that, it’s kind of a tossup between the rest.
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Austin CC/Austin GC would like a word! Sweetens is an hour from Nashville. Tampa has The Concession. Orlando has Nona and Isleworth. Mostly private but at least they have options worth traveling an hour+ for.
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Austin is probably right, but I’m mostly referring to the actual metro area. No one in Nashville is playing Sweetens 2x per week all season. If you’re counting stuff that’s worth driving for, the Big Cedar/Branson stuff would count for KC too (even if only 1.5 of the courses are really good).
Gotcha. I wasn’t necessarily referring to daily drivers. I’m stating that there are zero courses worth traveling to in the greater Kansas City area. I don’t consider Branson to be the KC area. I do consider Sweetens to be just outside Nashville.