Wichita has for years enjoyed a variety of excellent golf courses. In addition to the five public city courses we have numerous smaller communities within a 30 or 45 minute drive who have some very nice public courses.

A local favorite is Wellington – just a quick 20 minutes drive from the center of town! The public course – Turkey Run - in Mcpherson is a very nice course as well. It is right off the Hiway when you drive north out of Wichita. Newton has a nice little public course and Clearwater – just 10 minutes southwest of town has a wonderful little 9 hole course for those of us who like straight uncluttered fairways and don’t want to wait 5 minutes before you can hit your next shot. I’ve never had to wait to tee off at the Clearwater course – or in Wellington either for that matter. I don’t mind the gallon of gas and the few extra minutes on the road in order to play at a nice, clean, and practically empty course!

Sim Park golf course is my personal favorite. It is short, and just an incredibly picturesque course. Situated right next to a park which runs along the Arkansas river there is an abundance of beautiful trees and well maintained fairways. The greens are well kept and not too big. ( Just right for a hack like me! ) a quick 5 minutes from downtown make Sim easy to get to from any part of town.

Many local golfers swear by Macdonald park golf course. Originally a Country Club, MacDonald is 6500 yards of beautiful cottonwoods and great fairways. Back in the early 90s the city poured a bunch of money into a total renovation of MacDonald Park Golf course making it a real treasure in a city of less than half a million people.

On the same side of town lies Clapp Park. Clapp offers a ton of cottonwoods, a winding creek, which has claimed many of my errant shots over the years, and many mostly straight fairways. In my humble – and totally unprofessional – opinion Clapp is probably the easiest of our five city courses. And I’ve still never managed to break par there! I’m sure Tiger and Phil and Ernie and Vijay will all rest a little easier tonight knowing I’ve never broken par anywhere! Clapp is a pretty and very nice course.

Out in West Wichita – right west of the airport is a beautiful course named after Tex Consolver. Tex was a longtime pro at MacDonald and pretty much a legend in Wichita golf circles. His namesake course is, I believe, the longest course in Wichita and ranks right up there in beauty and design. A beautiful and challenging course it offers more room to play than the prior three city courses.

Further west is Wichita’s newest course – Auburn Hills. Desgined by the Perry Dye group in Denver, this course offers some excellent and challenging holes. It is Wichita’s most expensive course. And well worth it according to many of Wichita’s golf lovers.