Short course vision

Working as a director of agronomy at a course guided by an ambitious developer with a longtime personal connection to the property requires inordinate patience and supple management.

Brent Racer demonstrates both traits. Racer oversees the maintenance at Oakwood Country Club in Kansas City, Missouri. His boss, Ken Block, organized a group of members to purchase the club in 2020. Block’s relationship with the 143-year-old private club spans six decades. Re-energizing Oakwood, a former Jewish club that had experienced membership and prestige dips, represents a passion project for Block.

His goals are lofty. He strives to transform Oakwood into one of the Midwest’s most desirable and innovative clubs. Sod trucks, architects, contractors and frequent suggestions from Block following his whirls around the grounds are staples of Racer’s professional life.

“I can’t say enough about how important he is to our organization and where we are going with this,” Block says. “We have so many little things planned that I keep putting on them. The worst thing is that I go out and play golf and I’m sending text messages, ‘We have to fix this, we have to fix that.’ He’s very patient, which I appreciate.”

Little things turn into big things at Oakwood. “People always ask, ‘When are you going to be done?’” Racer says. “I don’t think we’ll ever be done. There’ll always be something to change.”

With the Memorial Day weekend unveiling of a 9-hole, par-3 course unlike anything residing at a private club in the Kansas City market, Oakwood is on a trajectory only Block envisioned a few years ago. Designed by Kansas City-based architect Todd Clark and golf course savant and writer Ron Whitten, the par-3 course represents an integral piece to Block’s quest to make Oakwood an option for private club members from everywhere seeking a Midwest hub. “From Day 1, my idea, our vision for the club, was to turn it into something that has not been seen in Kansas City,” Block says.

Before building a par-3 course on a 28.8-acre parcel Block’s group purchased in 2021, the Tom Bendelow-designed regulation course needed enhanced. Clark and Whitten devised plans to improve every hole. In fact, Block acquired wooded land surrounding the course to build three new holes.

Tees were added, so the course can play anywhere from 4,500 yards to more than 7,150. Bunkers were renovated, allowing for improved maintenance and playability. Fairways were converted to zoysiagrass, a trendy and playable turf type found throughout Kansas City. Ten greens were rebuilt the first summer under new ownership.

“That was only part of the job,” Block says. “The other part of the job was to try to create some additional amenities around it. How do you make it more than just a nice course?”

Block then addressed the practice range, which he refers to as a “performance center.” The facility is a tinkerer’s and beginner’s delight, with Trackman technology monitoring ball flight and simulators allowing for winter play and socialization. The short-game area features a system concocted by Whitten with pitch shots of varying distance found on the regulation course. “But,” Block says, “that wasn’t enough.”

Clark and Whitten then designed a 12-hole putting course, an amenity added by some of the nation’s more popular golf resorts in recent years. Oakwood’s iteration borders a waterfall surrounding the 18th green, and includes lights, speakers and a putting cottage with an outdoor grill and indoor snack bar. “From there,” Block says, “I felt like we had to go one more level.”

Enter the par-3 course.

Coincidentally, the heavily wooded land Block’s group purchased was once owned by his father, Allen Block. After his father and the club sold the property, it served as a home for the Spofford Treatment Center for children. The land sits across the parking lot from the regulation. Most people saw useless clutter beyond the parking lot. Block, whose days playing at the club are among his fondest childhood memories, saw an opportunity to separate Oakwood from other Kansas City-area clubs.

“Looking at the holes now, you can’t possibly understand how they were sitting in that piece of property,” Block says, “But here they were, waiting to be uncovered. I’m probably as excited about the par-3 course as anything else we have done out on the course. It’s the extra piece that the great courses have, and that’s where the real fun is.”

Planning for the par-3 course commenced in 2021, as Clark and Whitten trudged through the woods numerous times to comprehend how and where to build holes. “The first time I walked it I came out of the woods with about 20 ticks on me,” Clark says. “It was rugged terrain to walk through without any center lines cut.”

The pair, with enthusiastic support from Block, created a concept honoring notable par-3 holes on architecturally significant courses such as Augusta National, Pine Valley, Royal Wimbledon Golf Club and Spyglass Hill. Racer initially struggled visualizing what Block, Clark and Whitten were plotting. The woods were that thick. Plus, his team’s workload increased as it juggled the regulation-course renovation with daily play and other projects. The club kept 18 holes open throughout the renovation, limiting Racer’s opportunities to explore the course being planned.

“At first, you look at it and it wasn’t like a school, a building or that kind of thing,” Racer says. “It was hard to see.” For Racer, visualization occurred as staking commenced. “I knew it would be something special,” he adds.

Learning how to maintain high-level turf on a severely sloped site amid dense trees atop heavy-clay soils presents challenges. But the most challenging part of building a new golf course solidified by 2022. Somebody with a vision was ready to devote resources to making plans reality. When that golf development moment occurs, everybody on the payroll must adapt.

“There’s a process and you go through the steps every day,” Racer says. “You can’t get too excited, and you can’t get too worried about what’s coming. When you think too far down the road, it will overwhelm you. One day at a time, and you have to rely on people to do their job.”

Stay in the moment. It’s terrific advice for anybody working for an engaged owner with grandiose ideas stemming from a childhood love for a place.

“I would have never dreamt 50 years later that we would be opening one of the coolest par 3s in the country,” Block says. “The elevation differences and the surrounding of every hole by trees and forest by itself makes it unique. I play a lot of par 3s at a lot of different places. Most of them are on that extra piece of ground and they’ll say, ‘We’ll squeeze a par 3 over there. It will be really great.’ But there’s nothing like this.”