By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Founded in 1896, The Kansas City Country Club is one of the oldest and most prestigious private clubs west of the Mississippi River. KCCC is renowned for its rich history and deep ties to the development of the Country Club District and Country Club Plaza neighborhoods in the Kansas City area.
Located in Mission Hills, Kansas, the club features a classic 18-hole championship golf course that was originally designed by noted architect A.W. Tillinghast and later refined by Robert Trent Jones. The layout is known for its rolling terrain, strategic bunkering and fast greens that challenge golfers of all skill levels.
Beyond the golf, members enjoy a wide range of amenities, including multiple tennis courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a fully equipped fitness center and a beautifully appointed clubhouse with formal and casual dining spaces, private event rooms and social programming throughout the year. The club also provides dedicated practice areas such as a driving range and short-game facilities, contributing to its reputation as both a competitive and community-oriented gathering place for families and longtime members alike.
When chatting with 1999 Midwest PGA Section Golf Professional of the Year and 2012 Section Teacher & Coach of the Year, Paul Hooser, a PGA of America Assistant Golf Professional at KCCC, for a recent PGA Magazine Best Practice, he mentioned an extensive renovation project that will be wrapping up later this year. As a former PGA of America General Manager at several green grass facilities, Hooser’s experience has extended beyond the golf shop to various high-level topics over the years.
“We renovated the entire property, excluding the pool and the clubhouse,” Hooser explains. Anything to do with the golf course and practice facilities was redone.”
The fence-to-fence renovations included new bunkers, newly recontoured greens, new tee boxes and new fairway grass with Bentgrass replacing the Zoysia that had previously been in place.
“We also changed the layout of a couple of holes,” Hooser adds. “The 5th hole was changed from a dogleg right to a straighter and shorter hole, bringing in a considerable risk-reward decision for our golfers with bunkers to the left and right of the putting green. With the elimination of several trees, it also enabled us to double the size of the driving range teeing area to now accommodate two dozen golfers at any one time.”
Also, with new tees and greens, the directions of the 10th and 18th holes — holes that run parallel to each other — were reversed, returning to the original Tillinghast design of a century ago.
They added a new short-game area on the back of the driving range, strategically placing bunkers on one side of the practice green to ensure player safety when multiple members use the space at the same time. In addition, there’s a new, larger, more practical putting green near the first tee box. Hooser says the previous one had such undulations in some areas that rendered these parts relatively useless in a pre-round putting warm-up session.
What started in discussion in 2019 around the same time that Hooser joined the KCCC team has manifested into a comprehensive renovation that commenced in the fall of 2024 by Andrew Green of A.H. Green Design/Green Golf & Turf, closed the golf course for the entire 2025 golf season and will be revealed when it welcomes members later this spring or early summer. Previous renovation work includes a 2012 irrigation project and reconstruction of the 4th and 5th greens.
While the course has been closed, Hooser and the Kansas City Country Club golf operations staff have been providing tours of the course as it is under renovation. Members can see the work being done and often assume a greater appreciation for the job at hand, the future benefits to them as members and the overall commitment of the KCCC leadership team to the long-term excellence of the club.
