Philo Brathwaite #26416 giving driving lessons at the free National Tour Pro Clinic at Swope Park DGC.

Not even a week has passed since the last putt hit the chains at the 2016 Dynamic Discs Glass Blown Open and we’re already set up for the next stop on the National Tour, the 34th running of the Kansas City Wide Open (KCWO). It’s shaping up to be a great weekend, with beautiful weather in the forecast and the courses in pristine condition.

The KCWO runs on a very simple format this year for the National Tour, with the pros all playing just one round per day on a total of two courses: Blue Valley DGC (Friday) and Swope DGC (Saturday and Sunday). Simple yes, but as with any large disc golf event, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t involve an absurd amount of work.

Hay bales make the tee shot to the green for Hole 2 at Swope much more difficult.

“We’ve put about six months and hundreds of combined hours of work in to get to where we are today. Rounding up volunteers is always one of the hardest parts, with the added challenge this year of having to deal with Mother’s Day, meaning there are a lot of people that aren’t in town that otherwise would be. But we feel ready,” said Co-Tournament Director Dick Parker #20250.

It’s no secret that the Disc Golf World Tour also has an event going on right now in the Czech Republic, the Konopiste Open. When asked if he thought that was taking anything away from his event, Parker’s response was short and to the point. “I think we have all of the best players in the world here, minus two or three people, so we haven’t really had to worry about that.”

KCWO Courses

Swope Park DGC

Swope Park is massive. With 1805 acres of land, it clocks in as the 51st biggest municipal park in the United States. In addition to its disc golf course, it also houses a traditional golf course, an 8000 seat outdoor music/theatre venue, the Kansas City Zoo, the Swope Soccer Village, dozens of soccer, baseball, and football fields, and more.

Swope Gold DGC is massive as well, coming in at 8,586’ with a par of 61. Many of the holes have fairways lined with OB ropes making them even more challenging. For the shorter holes, on top of having roped OB they usually find ways to make it a bit more interesting.

Touring lefty Zach Melton #38631 practice putting at Swope.

Some would say that Swope is lefty friendly, meaning the course is set up in a way that favors left-handed players (throwing backhand). “When people say that, what they’re really saying is that the course isn’t righty friendly. Most of the holes out here are neutral,” said left-handed touring professional Zach Melton #38631 as he stood around his right-handed Prodigy teammates with a big grin.

Blue Valley DGC

If for some reason 8,586’ seems short to you, you’re in luck. Blue Valley is longer in distance at 9,884’ and higher in par at 65, but it also brings to the table the exhausting challenge of playing up, down, and across steep, rolling hills. With the winds of Kansas City always in play, a slight mistake off the tee can result in a lot more than just missing out on a birdie opportunity.

In his second year playing as a professional, Jordan Castro #49431 prefers Swope to Blue Valley, as he prefers precision over power. “Swope plays more to my style. As long as I can keep it in the fairway and keep it inbounds I’m gonna do well. I think Blue Valley can go both ways. Some people can throw really far and that gives them an edge, but only if they can control where it ends up.”

Jordan Castro #49431 throwing his second shot on the par 5 Hole 4 of Swope.

Water Works DGC

The steep slopes of Water Works seem to appear out of nowhere. One minute you’re on a typical flat Kansas City road and the next you’re driving up the winding road of some sort of grass and tree-filled mountain. The back-and-forth uphill and downhill layout is exhausting, but beautiful. At some points on the course, you’re up high enough to see the Missouri river wind its way towards the skyline of downtown Kansas City.

Water Works will only be in play for the Performance Flight at this year’s KCWO, but the pros seem to be okay with that. “It’s always better for us if we only have to play one or two courses, instead of three or four,” said current and 3X US Disc Golf Champion Will Schusterick #29064 as he laced up his shoes in the parking lot of Swope. “Water Works is great, but adding it means less time to practice the other two.”

Performance Flight

For the amateur players, the tournament staff opted to take a more complex route, bringing the USDGC’s Performance Flight system into play.

“The toughest part with Performance Flight is trying find creative ways to introduce something new to an area that isn’t used to it. We’ve done a lot of work to educate the locals about why and how Performance Flight is a good option versus the traditional style of play amateurs have been exposed to in the past,” said Scott Reek #12824, Technology Officer for the KCWO.

The Performance Flight is a TROPHY ONLY event. However, each player will receive an extremely well thought out players’ package unlike anything the KCWO has ever offered before. Our hope is that you will leave here feeling that we provided you with an elite tournament experience.

The Performance Flight will consist of one pool (Pool B) limited to 90 players. All players are welcome to play, regardless of skill level or player classification. The pool will start out on Friday playing the now famous finishing course of the KCWO, Swope Gold, on tee times.  Saturday they will remain on tee times for a grueling round of endurance at Blue Valley. Sunday morning they will go to the world famous Water Works for a final round at 8 AM (Shotgun).

Players will be delighted to know that we will have multiple way to win cash and prizes during their final round. We will have a final round ACE fund at both courses. If no ace hit there will be a CTP at the end of the round. There will also be a CTP on every card with cool prizes to win.

The Performance Flight will be identical to the USDGC Performance Flight that was introduced a few years ago in Rock Hill, South Carolina except that you will not need to qualify for the Wide Open. However, you will need to be a current PDGA member with an established rating. Since a ratings-based formula is used to calculate projected scores, there is a minimum rating allowed of 875. If you are rated below 875 and want to play, you will have to play the event with an 875 calculated score. If you do not have an established rating, you will have to play the event with a 1000-rated projected score. This is a performance based event, that was created by Adrian Southern of Disc Golf United and we are thankful to him for allowing us to use it here.

KCWideOpen.com

“On our way back from the USDGC, Scott and I were really excited about the idea of doing Performance Flight at our event. It’s difficult to convince Ams anymore that no payout can still be a worthwhile event. We want to bring true amateurism back into the sport and we hope it will dovetail into more events doing what we're doing,” said Parker.

The 34th KCWO begins tomorrow morning for all the event’s competitors. We’ll have live scoring up and running on pdgalive.com starting with the Open Women’s division at approximately 10:30am CDT for Round 1. Updates, pictures, and videos will be coming in via @pdgalive on Twitter and post-production round coverage presented by the PDGA will follow from The Disc Golf Guy.

Terry "The Disc Golf Guy" Miller #10738 (left) and Dick Parker #20250 (right) discussing coverage details.