Hopefully they mean Loki pruning.
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The Match Play field is filling up and play officially begins on April 1st! Go grab your spot in the 32-player field and test your luck in handicapped match play. This is open to all GPGC members in every corner of our geographic footprint so let’s #getinvolved!
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apologies for the potentially stupid question, but do I need to sign up for the GPGC anywhere as a KC resident before adding my name to this list?
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Toss your name in the “Roster” tab of this spreadsheet.
While you have that spreadsheet open, you might as well sign up for the events that you’d like to play in. Events will have threads made on the refuge with more details as we get closer to the day.
@scagnetti or someone else with admin can add you to the private GPGC channels on the Refuge.
We also have a pretty active discord server. Accounts are free. Chat about random golf stuff, make tee times, range sessions etc. The best way to keep up with the goings on of the GPGC.
Look forward to meeting you out on the course!
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Getting word Swope renovations might not be happening now? Anyone heard this?
Heard it might have to do with the KC Match Play schedule. It was off at Swope for the work but now it’s back on and not doing the work. Please tell me this is wrong!
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awesome, thank you so much
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Welcome! It’s outstanding to see our GPGC Roost continue to grow with each season.
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I’ve been meaning to ask how to go about joining the GPGC Roost as well. I took the liberty to add myself to the roster and the discord. Thanks for the great reply that made it easy!
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I also just joined the Roost yesterday and am looking to get involved. @scagnetti or someone, can I get into the Roost channels when there’s a free minute?
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Done bud! Inbox porfa!
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Physical construction got delayed a year, but the plan for the “sympathetic renovation/restoration” is still on. The Park Board approved an agreement with Todd Clark on February 13 to “expand the recently completed Swope Memorial Golf Course research and restoration plan” and provide “design services for the golf course features (greens, fairways, bunkers, teeing areas), irrigation, cart paths, golf course layout, drainage, golf cart storage facility, and all engineering.” Project is supposed to go from March 1, 2024 to April 30, 2026. Guessing final design work is finished this year and then construction would start next year.
All this information comes from the Park Board’s February 13, 2024 meeting agenda.
Talked to an employee three weeks ago when I snuck in a quick and nine. He said he couldn’t say anything about the actual design, but did say (1) they found the original plans, (2) they are planning on doing everything, and (3) the old practice holes would be “something pretty cool.”
Make Golf in Swope Park Great Again.
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Did not realize you could find that publicly. Link to the meeting minutes for anyone interested: https://kcparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Board-Minutes-Feb.-13-2024.pdf
Stuff about the swope renovation starts on page 6.
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Wow. Very impressed with the info and finding the documents. This is why I come to yall first.
Excited about the project. No knock on CE Golf Designs, but I wish there was a little more competition accepted in the KC area for golf design and construction services.
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Sounds like a business plan in your future 
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Im here for consulting and hucking ideas only.
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Strong agree on needing more competition in KC. CE does some things great (green complexes, example: the new green on 9 at Oakwood) and some things not so great (par 3s in general, everyone just seems like a 200 yard force carry, example: 14 at Oakwood), but I hope that with Swope finding the original plans CE’s involvement is more about getting what was originally designed great/updated and less about making drastic changes to the holes.
My biggest criticism of most of his designs is that he seems to try and find length by pushing greens back more frequently than I think is necessary (2, 17, 18 at Oakwood). Again, hopefully with this being a “sympathetic restoration/renovation”, he is more focused on (1) getting the greens back to what was intended in both size and contour, (2) adding length via moving tee boxes where he can (not easy given the site constraints here), and (3) if you can’t add length to a hole via pushing back the tee box, utilizing AW’s great obstacle design ethos to limit the ability to bomb and gouge.
One thing that I think CE is really great at is short game practice facilities. Most likely due to his ability to design a great green complex. While the employee that I talked to wouldn’t confirm, it seems like the idea is to turn the old practice holes into a short game facility.
Forgot to mention in my first post, but the employee also said that they are going to be increasing the maintenance budget significantly. In my mind regardless of what CE’s design ends up being, making sure that Swope has the ability to maintain what is out there is key to this being successful.
This has been your weekly, KC has some great golden age golf courses that are accessible to the public lets do everything we can to make them into the courses the public deserves rant.
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I don’t disagree with the results of Oakwood’s changes, but I do think some of the causes are ownership and not necessarily CE themselves.
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Bingo. I don’t disagree at all with you re: Oakwood @BlueRiverNotHOA. However, and I think you are saying as much in your post, the two projects are very different and require a different approach.
Oakwood is on pace to be a championship test worthy of hosting the biggest events in our area. Swope is a public course steeped in history. I hope those two things come out in the ground at both venues.
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1000% agree. Obviously he had to balance design with what Ken and the rest of the owners wanted and a course that frankly did not have the best bones. My criticism of 14 is also partially unwarranted because they needed to lengthen 15, find a way to get back to 15’s new tee box, and add a par 3 once they got rid of the old 13 for the putting course (which is tight as hell).
He did a ton of great things at Oakwood (1 is significantly improved, 4 and 5 are way better than the old 2 and 3, and, while I don’t love the pushing back greens, the new green on 17 with that absurd false front is sick even if I have cussed in complete sentences while watching my ball roll back to my feet) all while juggling the demands of a guy who doesn’t get told no a lot and taking that course from a solid C+ to an A-. The only reason that it isn’t an A+ is the the tree issue (as documented here) and lack of a shorter par 3 on the back, but neither of those things are due to his design they are owner/member issues and routing necessities.
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I’m a sick fuck and find myself falling asleep to thoughts about what I would do to Oakwood if I was in Ken’s shoes. I truly feel (and have always felt) Oakwood is on the best piece of property in Kansas City and frankly a wide swath of the Midwest for the type of golf I like (sand base not withstanding).
For me, the trees and lack of scale are the big factors that would take it from where it is now to a solid A (though I do appreciate the A- ranking, I think it is more of a B- at the moment). Widening the fairways, even simply to make the current fairway bunkers no longer surrounded by rough, would play a huge part. Hole like #2 that plays into the wind and is 600+ yards with a skinny severely sloping fairway is a great example. That hole needs more room for that land to bust out from the shadows and give the golfer a better shot. In my book, if you can hit two shots that cover 600 yards into the wind, you deserve a look at Eagle. As of now, the landing zone to go for it is 7 yards in the fairway and 12 yards if you are okay going from the rough. Lets take down a full line of trees on the left and expand that fairway 5-10 yards to the left. The scale of that hole would be magnificent and with some thoughtful tree planning (and heavy tree removal) you could stand up on 15 fairway and see 8 or 9 holes and the rolling hills that Oakwood sits on and, in my opinion, would not make the course any easier. Better turf, better views, more wind the golfer has to deal with and thicker rough would all come from this. Every winter reminds me how special the property is and we just don’t get to see it.
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