RON WHITTEN We concluded that very little of AW Tillinghast still exists at Swope Memorial Golf Course. His routing is still intact, but the greens and bunkers had been rebuilt so many times that very few original features still exist. Tillinghast made his plans in early 1934, then left an assistant in charge, Thomas Henry Riggs-Miller. Tillinghast never returned during construction and in 1935 began his three-year stint as a consultant to the PGA of America, driving around the nation, inspecting courses and making recommendations on how to cut budgets. Tillinghast did stop by Swope in 1936 as part of his tour and told a reporter his plans were not carried through as originally intended. There wasn’t much Tillinghast to preserve, but a good amount A team is at work to recapture AW Tillinghast’s original vision for Swope Memorial in Kansas City. Honouring a historic gem INSIGHT A 1935 photo of Swope Memorial’s fifth hole (now the sixth) Photo: Kansas City Parks & Recreation 34
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