Golf in Shawnee

A staff of PGA professionals oversees the improvement of all-around games as juniors and adults refine their skills on Heart of America Golf Academy’s extensive grounds. Encompassing sprawling practice facilities and three golf courses, the facility gives players multiple amenities for working on their form. Golfers can play a nine-hole round at the River Course or practice short-game touch at the par 3 Rock Course; beginners can make a smooth foray into the game at the Hill, a three-hole junior learning center. Players can also head to the 36-station driving range, where grass tees mimic fairway conditions and double as smoothie enhancers for budding golfers.

From their perch atop the elevated tee box on Teetering Rocks Golf Course’s signature third hole, players attack the heart-shaped green with a barrage of dimpled spheres. This memorable stroke represents just one component of a player’s bid for the 18-hole track’s par of 65, a difficult feat that stands at odds with the course’s relaxed ambiance. Clocking in at 4,309 yards from the back tees, the course typically takes less than three hours to complete, leaving the rest of a player’s day wide open for polishing golf balls and engaging a passion for golf-club puppetry.

Course at a Glance:

18-hole, par-65 course

Total length of 4,309 yards from the back tees

Course rating of 58.9 from the back tees

Course slope of 90 from the back tees

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.

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