The 32nd Kansas City Wide Open (KCWO) officially came to end on Sunday evening as Paul McBeth and Paige Pierce tapped in for their third PDGA National Tour victories of the year. After three days of walking some of the largest courses on the tour, often more than once, it was a long weekend to say the least. The 90+ degree weather certainly didn’t make the weekend any less demanding for the competitors and staff, but we all made it out alive and well.
Exhausting. Amazing. Intense. Beautiful. There are so many ways to describe the second round of the 32nd Kansas City Wide Open depending on who you’re talking to, and they’re all correct. Blue Valley Park is only 18 holes yet it measures in at a ridiculous 10,541 feet. And it’s not just the distance that makes Blue Valley Park the true test of mental and physical strength that it is, it’s the elevation changes. Almost every hole somehow plays downhill, uphill, and left or right. Walking the course without throwing a single disc is tiring on its own. High-pressure competition on the course requires an entirely different level of focus and endurance.
The long awaited start of the 32nd Kansas City Wide Open came to fruition this morning at Wyandotte County Park on the Kansas side of Kansas City. Thanks to a ton of prep work by the tournament staff, the course was primed and ready to go for championship caliber disc golf. The air horns sounded off right on time for the shotgun start, and the 84 players were lucky enough to tee off and play all day in nearly perfect weather conditions.
The words “Kansas City” mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Kansas City is renowned for its slow-smoked style of barbeque and the delicious craft beer brewers like Boulevard Brewing Company and Flying Monkey. It’s home to the Kansas City Royals (MLB), the Kansas City Chiefs (NFL), and Sporting Kansas City (MLS). It’s even spawned its own genre of blues and jazz music. KC has a lot to offer for the nearly half a million people that live here, and if you happen to be a disc golfer that lives here, you’re in for a treat.
Another National Tour Elite Series tournament concluded today as the last putt hit the chains at the Kansas City Wide Open presented by GripEQ. The final round was played at Swope Park DGC on the Missouri side of Kansas City. Swope Park itself is a true treasure of the Midwest. Amazing disc golf course, check. Zoo, check. Beautiful ball golf course, check. Outdoor concert venue, check. The park has it all, and today a gallery of 400+ gathered to watch some of the best disc golfers in the world take on the course in pristine condition.
The 30th Kansas City Wide Open, teed off this morning under overcast skies and with unusually cool temperatures for this time of year in the Midwest.
Hosted by the inveterate Kansas City Flying Disc Club, this edition features an unprecedented five different and unique courses being played in the three day competition for the first time ever, making it arguably the most challenging test of mettle on the 2012 PDGA National Tour Elite Series, presented by Vibram Disc Golf.
