Visit to KC 5/28,29

[Schoen-hopper]

Looks like I may finally get to play Young Park this Saturday, 5/28, likely late morning.  Looks like an amazing course from the pics on DGCR.  Can't get the map to print full size there.  If there is time, might stop at Yates before or after.

Then WW on Sunday morning, maybe a Down Under Round afterwards or check out Old Pike if there is time.

Going to play some "ball golf" too.  The KC area has TONS of courses.   Some that caught my eye: Dub's Dread, Painted Hills, Sycamore Ridge, Iron Horse, Swope, Shoal Creek, Hodge Park, Tiffany Greens.  Thinking of doing Shoal Creek on Saturday pm and Iron Horse on Sunday pm.  Swope and Dubs Dread look to be close runners up.  Any recommendations?

[jack]

Swope is a great course I think personally, way better than painted hills....  Shoal Creek is pretty good as well, just newer....I havent played Sycamore, or Iron horse, so cant speak about those but the others I have, and you see my answer above....

[twoDornottwoD]

hodge is pretty straight forward and overpriced for a muni

tiffany is pretty sweet.  has a lot of water.  not long but tough.

if you haven't played the beav yet at paradise pointe , the outlaw or the posse course are both awesome for ball golf and you can swing by the beav to check that one off your list.  just sayin'. 

[Schoen-hopper]

Gotta love KC.  Tons of disc courses, but I had no idea how many ball golf courses.  One thing disc golf has on ball golf is dgcoursereview.com.  I've seen a couple of cool golf course review sites, but nowhere near as extensive or descriptive.  I want to play a golf course with lots of elevation, elevated tees, etc.  Hard to figure out which ones fit the bill.  Looks like we are doing Shoal Creek 4pm Sat.  Iron Horse 4pm Sun.  Needless to say, plenty of courses to come back and play.  Maybe next time I'll spend a whole day in Smithville.

[Schoen-hopper]

Had a great trip!

Yates Elementary had some nice topography.

Young Park was a tremendous course.  Tough!  A gave John Theiss a detailed review.  I believe this course is easily one of KC's top courses.  That is saying quite a lot.   Scores high on almost every category.  Rained on us a good part of the round, but still had a great time.

Played Shoal Creek golf course.  It had GPS carts.  We didn't get started until 5pm and easily got our round of 18 in.  For being the 2nd highest ranked public course in Missouri, I have to say I was disappointed.  Zoysia fairways all in great condition, nothing neglected.  The course just lacked character.  I can't really remember any of the holes.  The signature hole was a downhill par 3 with a stone wall in front of the green.  The rest of the holes didn't have too much in the way of elevation changes, cool trees, dog legs, etc.  Not a bad course by any means, just lacked the wow factor.

Ate at Cascone's, just 1/4 mile North of Water Works.  Good Italian food with 1960's atmosphere.

Went to Old Pike Sunday morning.  What a wild mix of holes.  Didn't try to play most of the course.  Still dropped them a 5 spot.  Hole numbers on the sign didn't match flag numbers on the pins which also didn't match the hole numbers on the map.  It wasn't until I was completely done walking the course that I figured out the actual hole order.  It's obvious that some time has been spent on this place.  With much more work, this place could be awesome.

Lots of people working out at Water Works, which is awesome.  Love this place.  Was a little muddy on a few holes, which made teeing difficult.  I think hole 5 should be raised just a touch.  Oh, I found bag tag #119 at hole 17 at Old Pike and ended up leaving it inside the box at the WW kiosk.

If you EVER get a chance, play Iron Horse Golf Course in Leawood, KS.  It's on Mission Rd by 151st S.  This course was an absolute 10.  Country club experience.  Played at 4pm for $38, which included the cart.  Well worth it.  Unlike Shoal Creek, every hole was unique and had tons of character.  Will do this one again.

[Schoen-hopper]

Another golf / disc golf vacation in the works for this coming Fri/Sat the 23rd/24th.

Wanting to do the Smithville complex maybe Saturday morning, more likely Friday evening.  Which courses should we play if we only have time for 2?  Which if we can do only 1? 

Might do Down Under or Wilbur Young Sat morning, but more likely we'll play Water Works.  If you don't live near KC, you gotta get all the WW you can, when you can.

For "ball" golf, I didn't find a really good KC course review site.  That's one thing disc golf has the upper hand on.  But I did find kansascitygolfguide.com and I made a list of what I guessed to be the best courses.  Sort of in order of expected comparative ranking.

Iron Horse in Leawood, KS.
Played this one last year and it was so good that I'm not sure if we would like to forego the exploration and just play this one again.  Outstanding course.

Dub's Dread in KC, KS.  Out by where Ted's Dread was.  Heard it used to be one of the toughest in the country.  Now looks like a huge range in length is available.  I usually like to play slop ratings in the low to mid 120's, so the shorts would be good enough.  Most of these courses play about 124 from the "whites" and that's a decent challenge.  I like fast greens, big trees, and other features that add difficulty.  But I also like for it to be fair and let you decide how much risk you want to play; big fairways are a plus.

Tiffany Greens in KC, MO.  A little longer at 6200' from whites.  Looks like plenty of water too.

Swope Memorial Golf Course in KC, MO.  Like disc golf, downhill golf shots are loads of fun.  Every time I drive by this place and see all the hills, it just looks like a great time. 

Deer Creek in Overland Park, KS.  Don't know anything about it.  Pictures look nice.

Sycamore Ridge in Spring Hill, KS.  The slope rating and course rating are just ridiculously high.  150 slope from the longest tees.  That is just nuts.  Would be fun just to see how crazy this course is.  Might not be fun having to say what I shot.

Tomahawk Hills in Shawnee, KS.  Read that there is two huge tee off of a cliff holes.  And the green fees are really cheap.  Is the rest of the course good too?

Winterstone in Independence, MO.  Only course on top of an active mine?  Nice pics on the website.

Adams Pointe in Blue Springs, MO.  Just North from Wilbur Young Park, it appears.

Paradise Point in Smithville, MO.  The Outlaw and The Posse.

Falcon Ridge in Lenexa, KS.
Drumm Farm in Independence, MO.
Prarie Highlands in Olathe, KS.
Sunflower Hills, in Bonner Springs, KS.
Painted Hills, in KC, KS.
Hodge Park in KC, MO.

Anyone played a few golf courses around the KC metro?  Any recommendations?  Thinking maybe Dubs or Tiffany Greens Friday morning and either Swope or Iron Horse or Tiffany Saturday afternoon.

What about a good sports bar and grill, maybe somewhere in the North KC area, to watch the Jayhawk game?

[dickthediscparker]

Well there is a 2 course Golf Complex right next to the Smithville Complex.  I hear the "outlaw" course is one of the best public courses around. 

As far as playing Smithville, I highly suggest playing Woodhenge, the yellow basket course, and Blackthorn, the Blue Baskets course.

Being that there are no tee signs yet you may want to download an overhead map from the facebook page.

[Dale W]

The Brass Rail at 152 and Brighton is a pretty cool place.  Tons of TVs, pool tables and the food is pretty good although slightly overpriced.

 

What about a good sports bar and grill, maybe somewhere in the North KC area, to watch the Jayhawk game?

If you can only get in one course, I would recommend Blackthorn.  I love Beaver Creek, but the 'Thorn is a little more rounded course, longer, has all the pads (Beaver is still missing a couple due to changes to the layout) and they just finished hole 15 I hear.  If you can get in two, I'd suggest adding Beaver.  Woodhenge is a killer course by itself and when I played the Henge and Blackthorn together, my arm was spaghetti by the end.   

Wanting to do the Smithville complex maybe Saturday morning, more likely Friday evening.  Which courses should we play if we only have time for 2?  Which if we can do only 1? 

[Captklank]

Blackthorn and Woodhenge are the ones to play!

[tedkeith]

Hey Mike!

I should be free Friday after 2 and would be glad to meet you at Smithville. It would be great to see you.

If you are playing one play Woodhenge. Black Thorn will be very muddy the first half with all the rain we are getting so Beaver may be a better choice for a second.

[tedkeith]

Duh, didn't even look at the dates you posted. Hopefully I will be free anyways and would love to meet up.

[jack]

If you are in KC at WW, check out Chappell's to watch the game....
http://www.chappellsrestaurant.com/chappells/

It is a must see for all sports fans....the food is not the greatest, but adequate for the memories that you will have the location.  It is realistically, less than 4 minutes from WW, you can get there in 2 stop lights if you know where you are at....one of which you could turn right on, and park....

[Schoen-hopper]

Thanks for the suggestions all.  Sent ya a PM Ted.

At Smithville Lake, will do Woodhenge at least, maybe more if there is enough light.

Dub's Dread and either Tiffany Greens or Iron Horse for ball golf.

For the NCAA game, might do either Chappell's or find something closer to Independence.  Not that far though, I suppose.

Any good eats anywhere in the KC Airport region anywhere between Ted's Dread and Smithville Lake?  For lunch Sat, how about around the Water Works area?  Mexican, Italian, whatever is good. 

[jack]

I'd eat at Chapell's when you are in the area.....I haven't been there in awhile, but the last time, they only had "regular tv's", nothing special as for a viewing space, its more the nostalgia of the place and the awards that are cool, its not a typical hang out to watch the game type of place, but it is super cool.....you may want to walk around more than watch the game....

WW and Independence is pretty far away, at least 20-25 minutes depending on where in Independence, and what time of day.

Hope the weather holds up for ya Mike!

[Schoen-hopper]

Had a great time in KC this weekend.  Thanks for the referrals.  Despite driving through rain all the way up and again after our round of golf, we were dry the whole day Friday.  Golf at Dub's Dread was sweet.  Lots of hills and trees is always fun.  Thanks to Ted and TJ for the round at Smithvilled Lake.  Woodhenge pretty much rocks.  Lots of really good holes our there.  Probably a good par 62 for upper advanced and I shot much higher than that.  Favorite hole was probably the backwards 7 on hole 7.  This course will just get better and better the more work the parks does out there.  So lucky to have their assistance.  Looking forward to playing the other courses.  It's beautiful out there.  May do the ball golf next time as well.

Saturday was a beautiful day.  Threw an even round at WW.  Course was in beautiful shape.  Went to Chappell's afterwards.  Yeah, that is a ton of sports memorabilia.  Lots of stuff from KC's history.  Played a round at Tiffany Greens afterwards.  Nice course, but either the place had 6" of recent rain or poor drainage.  All the fairways were standing water.  The rough right off the greens on the front 9 was a foot tall, so if you found your ball, you probably couldn't play it.  That feature was not much fun.  Back nine had a lot of greens built up right on the water.  Water hazard on almost every hole.  Very challenging.  Must admit my game wasn't up for the challenge this time.  Just incredible that KC has well over 50 nice golf courses to choose from.