history of the club

Indian Hills Country Club had its beginning back in 1919 when a group of 50 enthusiastic golfers started the Country Club District Community Golf Association and began playing nine holes on land rented to them from the J.C. Nichols Company. This small group, with foresight and a vision of having their own golf course that would one day take its place among the most important golf courses in the area, began setting aside an annual real estate fund for such a venture. In 1922, the club temporarily moved to the present site of the Kansas City Country Club where it stayed until 1926. At this time, the club founders’ dream was finally realized and enough money was accumulated, without assessing the membership, to finance a new golf course. The newly purchased site was the present 130 acres of picturesque ground in Mission Hills, Kansas.

A.W. Tillinghast of New York City was retained to design the new course. As one of the leading golf architects in the United States, Tillinghast had to his credit the design of some of the country’s finest golf courses, including Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, and Baltusrol in Springfield, New Jersey. After spending ten days on the grounds developing detailed plans for the course, Tillinghast enthusiastically pronounced it, “one of the greatest opportunities I have ever had for creating a notable golf course.” Natural beauties abounded––a stream, hills, valleys and wooded sections––that provided a most unusual design opportunity.

Under the new name of Indian Hills Country Club, the club’s existing picturesque and rustic clubhouse was moved to its new location on Tomahawk Road and expanded. Indian Hills Country Club members were finally at home, playing golf, on their own property in the spring of 1927.

From these beginnings, Indian Hills Country Club has developed into one of the premier country clubs in Kansas City. The original clubhouse was completely replaced in 1972 and has undergone a number of transformations since that time. Various sections of the clubhouse have been remodeled at different times from 1997 to 2001. Beginning in the fall of 2008, IHCC began a major renovation project under the design direction of Ferry, Hayes & Allen, an Atlanta-based firm who has designed many other premier clubs such as Oakmont, Congressional and Biltmore Forest.  After more than a year of construction, we opened the doors to a brand new pro shop and fitness center, a renovated pool and snack bar area, a stunning new grand ballroom and banquet facilities, and new dining rooms.

The golf course has had several “face lifts” as well, but always with the intention of preserving the integrity and design characteristics of the original course Tillinghast created. Although extensive irrigation, drainage and bunker work was conducted in 1997 and 1998, the basic configuration of the holes is just as Tillinghast laid them out in 1927.

The vision our founders held in 1919 of having a course that would someday make its mark as one of the most important golf courses in the area has certainly been realized time and again. The club has hosted more than 50 qualifying golf events for the USGA or for state amateur championships, and in the summer of 2001 Indian Hills proudly hosted the 53rd U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, the first USGA conducted championship held at any club in Kansas City in over 40 years.