Daryn Soldan, Brandon Urban and myself took it upon ourselves to get together at least one more time this year before the weather turns to winter. Sycamore Ridge makes several of the publication “Lists” for best of this and that for a public course in the state of Kansas. However more importantly, the course is often offered up as a place to play when asked here on GCA.com when in KC and to my knowledge has never been chronicled or profiled. SR is located just to the south of Kansas City, not far off I-35 in the small town of Spring Hill, Kansas. Spring Hill is one of those communities that was originally a small little town that now finds itself growing quickly as a suburb on the southern edge of Johnson County. The course was designed and opened in 1999 at the height of the golf boom in the U.S. along side similar semiprivate course offerings in north east Kansas as, Falcon Ridge, Falcon Lakes, Prairie Highlands, Ironwood and Deer Creek.
I had first played SR in the early 2000’s before I lived in the area and if memory serves, the fairways were bermuda in which each time I played, were brown/dormant... in May. The course has since changed over to the more northern bent grass fairways vs. the local staple zoysia here in the transition zone. Our cooler summer and crisp fall mornings this year have brought out the lush green look everyone loves so much. For me though, I preferred the golden brown hue of last August during the drought which was much more fun.
The course measures 7,081 yards from the tips and has the tale of two 9 nines with regard to routing and scenery. The front 9 meanders through the Kansas prairie and thicket with a combination of 3 par 5’s, 3 par 4’s and 3 par 3’s. The back is cut out of a dense wooded area that has a creek, several ravine water hazards and makes use of one or two ridge lines for fairway definition. The front is very walkable, the back is a hike and then some and unfortunately, most of our photos were on the front with just a couple on the back. If our little group is going to keep doing this, I am going to need to get a better camera. All photos today were courtesy of Brandon and Daryn.
On with the brief tour, me on the first tee just after sun up, 41 degrees and a 15 mph out of the west.
Since it was 41 degrees and breezy, Daryn decided to show up in shorts. The photo below is #5 tee box from around 160 yards, good photo of divot and ball in the air with a horse and cattle barn in the background.
Daryn and me in one of the many bunkers on the par 5, 6th. I thought black was supposed to be slimming?
Daryn pulling the flag on 6, Brandon took most of the photos which was probably on purpose to stay out of the lime light. Good example of the terrain of the front 9 in the background of this shot.
Approach on #7, raised green site with a stadium of trees.
Daryn on the 185 yard, #8 tee. We suspected that the terrain up front was once unplayable native grass that has since been mowed down, but not maintained and ironically, the recovery shot is still almost unplayable. We tried to come up with a definition or term for this type of ground, but did not have any luck.
Approach, 400 yard par 4, 10th across creek.
Green site from the cart path on #12, notice the zoysia collar starting to turn color in the fall. My approach was on the left collar, seemed unique hitting an approach off bent, then putt off zoysia back onto a bent green.
My favorite holes, 5, 8, 12 and 17, least favorite, 6, 9 and 16. I was not a big fan of these par 5’s that were over bunkered (6), jammed in along the shoreline (9) or chopped up landing zones (16). Overall, Sycamore Ridge is one of the better courses in the area and definitely worth a repeat play, especially at the $49 green fee which included a cart. My brief intro and write up is hopefully just an intro where I hope Daryn, Brandon and others chime in on their experiences at SR.