Swope Memorial Golf Course is reopening with history in mind

This summer, Swope Memorial Golf Course will reopen after a massive 15-month renovation to restore features designed by World Golf Hall of Fame architect A. W. Tillinghast. Many of these features were removed in the early 1990s with an attempt to modernize the course, but the work being done now will make Swope the only public Tillinghast-designed golf course that retains all of its original holes and routing in the United States.

Opened in 1915, Swope Memorial Golf Course was the first public course built in Kansas City. The first KC course, Kenwood Golf Links, was part of the private club built by Scottish immigrants in 1894 between 34th and 26th streets from Gillham to Charlotte. Kenwood Links would eventually relocate to what is now Loose Park. Swope Memorial re-opened in 1934 with a major redesign by Tillinghast. Tillinghast was part of the “Philadelphia School” of architecture which, together, designed more than 300 courses, 27 of which are still listed among the top 100 golf courses worldwide.  

Todd Clark of CE Golf Design is leading the renovation with help from Lenexa resident Ron Whitten, a respected expert on historic golf architects. Beyond writing The Golf Course, a book on course architecture, Whitten was an editor for Golf Digest and has worked on his own projects as an architect. The Kansas City Parks Department chose Clark for the renovation in an effort to revitalize the greens, tee boxes, bunker and pathing to a form as close as possible to Tillinghast’s original vision. 

Swope Memorial Golf Course has been home to many tournaments and competitions, such as the 1949 Kansas City Open Invitational, the 1953 United Golf Association National Championship and the 2005 USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship.

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