KCCC Discovers Opportunity

The 18th green at Kansas City Country Club

Kansas City Country Club has always been reasonably confident of its golf course’s A.W. Tillinghast roots.

KCCC knew Tillinghast was hired by the club on Dec. 10, 1925, based on minutes from a board meeting. They also had a receipt for $2,500 for Tillinghast’s services. There are detailed newspaper accounts on the original design work Tillinghast’s company did at neighboring Indian Hills Country Club, which always mentioned that he was hired for that job because he was conveniently already in town working at KCCC. Tillinghast’s own sales brochures claimed KCCC as one of his original designs.

A duplicate of A.W. Tillinghast's original design of Kansas City Country Club, dated 1927

Beyond those facts, however, there was scant physical evidence of the work Tillinghast did at KCCC. There were no known notes or interviews or drawings or anyt...