“The wall comes down this week,” writes Kurt Everett, general manager of 43rd-ranked Hillcrest Golf & Country Club.
Just the promise of demolition boosted Hillcrest two rungs in the Top 50 ranking. When the greenside stones actually topple on the course’s once-great ninth hole, Hillcrest will likely soar to unprecedented heights. “The celebrations that greeted the destruction of the Berlin Wall will pale in comparison,” I considered writing to Everett. “The Great Wall of China will regain its stature as ‘world’s silliest if well-intended barrier.’”
The wall on Hillcrest’s ninth was not Donald Ross’s idea. (John Garrity)
Faithful readers of this blog know the history. Hillcrest Country Club, the only Donald Ross layout in Missouri, had a challenging ninth of 420 yards that was regarded as one of the best holes in the Kansas City area. The ninth tested the nation’s best players for decades, including the years when Hillcrest hosted the PGA Tour’s Kansas City Open. But some time ago, at the insistence of a club executive who dabbled in the bridesmaid-dresses resale market,* the Ross green was bulldozed and a new green installed some 50 yards closer to the tee. A stone bulkhead elevated the new green complex from mere deformity to flat-out laughing stock.
*The bridesmaid crack is relevant because the old green site was deemed the perfect spot for a wedding bower — if your dream wedding includes beeping golf carts and two foursomes of braying sandbaggers settling bets.
Hillcrest’s green transplant began in earnest last week. (Photo by John Bozarth)
More recently, after a dalliance with bankruptcy and conversion to daily-fee status, Hillcrest’s new management decided to restore the original Ross green. That green emerged last fall and is now deemed ready for play. That, in turn, makes the bogus green redundant and its stone facade irrelevant. The ghost of Ronald Reagan was seen on the ninth tee last week, shaking his fist and shouting, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Now, down it comes. It pains me that I can’t attend the actual wall-banging, but I’m moonlighting at The Masters for Sports Illustrated and Golf.com. Still, I’ll know when the wall has fallen.
It will be reflected in the ranking.
The Masters returns to Augusta National for a record 77th time. (John Garrity)
Top 50 on TV: It’s Masters week, so the golf industry is bivouacked outside 6th-ranked Augusta National Golf Club. Since we were there last, a wall of it’s own has fallen with the admission of the club’s first female members. Reagan’s ghost, we are told, had nothing to do with this long-awaited deconstruction.
John Garrity's Top 50 
John, since I don’t have a blog of my own, thought I would jump on yours. Your inspirational comments about our ninth green have boosted our moral as we watch the rebuilding progress of the new, old green, or something like that. We are very excited that the finish is here and so many positives are coming to fruition. Our membership is advancing to a level that gives us here at Hillcrest hope of a long, bright future.
I was very pleased that you thought so highly of the proceedings that two huge rungs were awarded. My hope is that you will be back from the Masters soon enough to play the ninth as it is being played during the final stages of grading, for the grand opening of new, old number 9, or something like that. The hole is being played from the ninth tee to the practice area over by hole number one. The fact that we didn’t want our golfers to have to play to a temporary green of “dubious merit ” would be a consideration by the distinguished raters at Catch Basin, in addition to the boost expected by having the old, new green back, or something like that. Well sir, until I see you at the old course.
Your friend
John Bozarth PGA