Fore! One of KC’s Best-Kept Secrets

The Unity Village Golf Course offers a challenging (and beautiful) nine-hole, par-36 design

I had just sized up the first hole of the Unity Village Golf Course. It plays 305 yards from the blue tees to the green and is listed as a par-4 on the scorecard. Most golfers would use a fairway wood at this hole, but I was feeling cocky. Driver it is, I said to myself.

I had every intention of hitting the power fade I had been practicing all summer. The ball rocketed off the clubface, and for a half second I had hit the perfect shot. Then, like every drive I hit too hard, disaster struck.

Instead of fading, the ball kept hooking. And hooking. And hooking. It hooked so far I had to shout the one four-letter word every golfer hates—Fore!—at the lovely couple teeing off at No. 2. I sheepishly slunk to my ball, apologized, and miraculously saved par. Playing that hole two years ago was my first experience golfing at Unity Village—and also my first time ever on the campus here.

I realized two things that day. First, the golf course is challenging for a nine-hole course. Second, it’s a hidden gem within the Kansas City area. 

Where were all the people? I wondered. I got my answer recently after tracking down golf and grounds manager Max Yost.

The course was established in 1924 at the behest of Rickert Fillmore, an avid golfer, according to Yost, and son of Unity founders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. When it opened, it had only two holes. It was able to expand over the years, and its most recent incarnation came in the mid-1980s, when the orchards at Unity Village were permanently removed. The course started out as a private course, but went public in 2015.

“The trend has gotten to be an increase in walk-in public play versus membership play,” Yost says. “Now, since we’re public, we are starting to advertise.”

That answers that question.

Serene, Affordable, Fun

Par on the course today is 36 when playing nine holes, but let’s be honest, if you are playing golf you want to play 18 holes, making par 72. There is plenty about this course to keep you on your toes. The terrain changes drastically from hole to hole. Hole No. 3 is short, but the space between the tee and green might as well be filled with water, because it is like looking from one side of a gorge to the other. No. 5 is monstrously long at 490 yards and plays like you are hitting up the side of a mountain.

One of the more interesting features here is the serene setting, since as Yost points out, the course hugs the woods instead of a subdivision full of homes.

“You can have nature right there in front of you,” he says, adding that deer, geese, and turkey often wander across the course. “It’s a very peaceful atmosphere.”

For information, call 816-251-3582 or visit unityvillage.org/golf-course.

This article was originally published in Unity Magazine®.