Mission Hills Country Club

Mission Hills was established in 1914, largely through the efforts of J. C. Nichols, who was developing the planned community of the same name on the Kansas side of the state line. The club was a sales instrument as much as a golf course: houses were harder to sell in Kansas than in Kansas City, Missouri, and a country club changed that. Tom Bendelow is credited with the original design, and Keith Foster carried out a substantial renovation in 2007 aimed at the green sites.

It should not be confused with Kansas City Country Club a short distance away, which is the club associated with Tom Watson, nor with the Mission Hills in California that hosted the women’s major.

What it asks of you

Par 70 over 6,490 yards from the back, with only two par fives, at the eighth and the eighteenth. That is the whole character of the round: sixteen holes where par is the best most players will do, and two where a shot can be got back.

A par 70 built this way puts the weight on the long par fours, and there are several. The tee shot has to be in play and long enough to leave a mid-iron rather than a wood, which on a course of this length means the driver is often the right club even though the yardage suggests otherwise.

Foster’s 2007 work was aimed at defending par through the green sites rather than by adding length, which is the modern answer to a short course. Expect approach shots that have to finish on a specific portion of the green, and recoveries from run-offs rather than from thick rough.

What players say about it

This is a private club, so the public record comes from guest accounts and specialist reviews rather than from visiting players. The points below summarise what recurs. These are other people’s opinions, not ours: we have not played the course, and we name and quote no one.

What comes up in its favor

• The Foster renovation is well received, and the green complexes are the part visitors talk about.
• Par 70 with two par fives is unusual enough that players remember the shape of the round.
• The setting, in one of the oldest planned suburbs in the United States, is admired.
• Conditioning is reported as good.

What comes up against

• Access is closed: private club, play by invitation.
• At 6,490 yards the course is short for a low handicap, and the defence is in the greens rather than the shot values off the tee.
• The name causes constant confusion with two other clubs, one of them a major championship venue.
• Public material is thin, and any summary, including this one, rests on a narrow base.

Getting there and when to go

The club is in Mission Hills, Kansas, about fifteen minutes south-west of downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

The season runs roughly from April to October. May and September give the best conditions; Kansas summers are hot. Play is by invitation of a member.

Green fees

Guest conditions are set by the club. See the club’s own site.

How this page was made

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap for the location, encyclopaedic entries and the club’s published history for the founding, the developer’s role, the original architect and the 2007 renovation, and public course records for par and length. The opinion section summarises public reviews and guest accounts read in September 2026; we report recurring themes rather than individual voices, and we reproduce no quotations.

We have not played this course, and this page is no substitute for a round. The club has not paid for this page, has not seen it before publication and has no say over its content. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.