Golf in Gardner

Lush greenery, stone-trimmed ponds, and sun-soaked bridges give the 18-hole Championship course its storybook beauty. Designed by notable local architect Don Sechrest, Adams Pointe features challenging elevation variation, scenic holes, and a front nine that includes one of the toughest par threes in the Kansas City area, according to Tee Times Golf Guide. A GPS cart preserves golfers' precious energy reserves as they play through the course's 18 holes (up to a $49 value). Hone skills until they're sharper than the scythe that shreds children's dreams, and knock off a small bag of balls (30–40 per bag, $5 value) on the acclaimed driving range. After the game, celebrate with a liquid of choice: domestic beer, bottled water, or a pop ($3 value).

Deer Creek Golf Club’s experienced staff, plush facilities, and picturesque championship course create an enjoyably mummy-free outdoor experience for golfers of any handicap. After calling to reserve a tee time, ball-banging golf-cart gurus can wreak polite and well-dressed havoc while carefully soft-spiking across all 18 of Deer Creek Golf Club’s holes, which have been designed to test the skills of experienced club-wielders while still giving beginners an exciting, accessible playing field. An included cart rental lets you easily navigate the course’s 6,811 yards of beautiful rolling hillocks, winding waterways, and tree-friendly areas while providing a means of escape from herds of disgruntled deer statues.

Dynamic golf duo Robin and Mark Nigro help golfers develop optimal swings at Robin Nigro Golf Academy's full driving range, pro shop, and academy. The pair first joined forces when Mark began teaching golf to Robin, then 23, who thrived under Mark's deft training and, in two short years, ascended the ranks from late-starting beginner to a competitor on the Futures Mini Tour. Recognizing their undeniable chemistry, the two joined forces and now foster successful golf skills with lessons tailored to golfers of all stripes, often enlisting technological teaching aids to enhance their swing diagnoses and placate the club's supercomputer overlord.

Those looking for solo practice sessions can take to the outdoor driving range, where clubbers launch balls off of astroturf hitting mats out into a zoysia-grass valley peppered with multiple target areas. With covered, heated hitting bays, the range lets pin hunters work on their power draw or high fade while safely protected from rainstorms or predatory hot air balloons.

Designed by golf great Raymond Floyd, The Legacy Golf Course incorporates rolling hills, woodland terrain, and water features into a challenging 6,776-yard layout. Throughout the round, grassy mounds create awkward lies as golfers strive to keep balls away from water hazards, which come into play on most holes, and ankle-high grasses that hug the course's more remote edges. Golfers must show off their best power-draw, fade, or spitball drive to tame the course's fifth hole, which doglegs sharply to the left and has flummoxed enough players to earn the distinction of the course's most difficult hole.

Players can prepare for their round at the club's practice facilities, which include a grass-tee driving range and practice greens for chipping and putting. The Legacy Golf Course is an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary that works to preserve its ecosystem's delicate balance between flying balls and flying squirrels.

Course at a Glance:

• Designed by Raymond Floyd

• 18-hole, par-72 course

• Length of 6,776 yards from the farthest tees

• Course rating of 73.0 from the farthest tees

• Slope rating of 134 from the farthest tees

• Five tee options

Fort Leavenworth FMWR, an organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of soldiers and their families, welcomes military members and civilians alike to swing their way through the Trails West Golf Course. According to Trails West, when President Eisenhower was attending nearby Command & General Staff College, he used to drop by the 18-hole, par 71 course, where he developed his lifelong passion for caddying for Mamie. For more than 90 years, the 190-acre facility has inspired many other players to waltz across the fairways of zoysia grass and onto the bent-grass putting greens. Holes 2, 3, 10, and 13 present challenging par 5s, and hole 6 claims the title of signature hole by virtue of an elevated tee from which players must send their dimpled orbs flying over a creek and onto an elevated green with subtle breaks and a shape-shifting hole.

Trails West Golf Course invites golfers to warm up at its lighted, covered driving range and two putting greens. Players can purchase gloves, clubs, and trees that grow golf balls at the pro shop or hone their game with instruction from PGA professionals. After a morning on the greens, players can drop by the Fairway Grille to munch a chicken-club sandwich or old-fashioned cheeseburger out on the patio.

Course at a Glance

• 18-hole, par 71 course
• Length of 6,188 from the farthest set of tees
• Course rating of 69.9
• Slope rating of 120
• Four sets of tee boxes
• See helpful course notes

The golfing gurus at Edwin Watts Golf Academy diagnose and correct their students' poor swing and putting habits in an effort to help them improve their shots and lower their scores. In one-on-one swing-analysis sessions, students learn a repeatable swing that eliminates tendencies they may have to slice, hook, push, or pull the ball. A special laser attaches to the end of the player's club and tracks the swing path while JC Video swing-analysis software records the session from two separate angles, lest analysis be thrown off by only looking at the golfer’s good side. Putting analysis employs Tomi technology to measure eight separate parameters of the putting stroke, from clubhead orientation at address to swing path and tempo. After swing and putting lessons, students may access the recordings on a password-protected website, so they can forward videos to friends or sports-documentary filmmakers.