Swope Memorial Golf Course

A.W. Tillinghast, the architect behind Winged Foot, Bethpage Black, San Francisco GC, and Baltusrol, re-designed Swope Memorial in 1934 as one of his career's rare municipal projects. The course was originally built in 1915 as the first public golf course in Kansas City; Tillinghast's redesign on the property's hilly terrain in Swope Park is considered among his most accessible work. Swope hosted the 1949 Kansas City Open Invitational, the only PGA Tour event ever held in the Kansas City area, and the 2005 USGA Women's Amateur Public Links. A complete historical restoration completed in 2025 brought the course back to closer to Tillinghast's original specifications. Public muni pricing keeps it firmly in the $ band, extraordinary value for a Tillinghast original anywhere in America. The course also has historical significance on the African American Heritage Trail of Kansas City.