Two Kansas City golf icons create new program to promote junior golf and grow the game

Photo: Earl Richardson

The entire six-hole course resides on less than 1.5 acres of land. The longest hole is 30 yards, greens are 18 feet in diameter and the cups are 6 inches wide with 5-foot flagsticks.

Tom Watson and Evey Jones (age 16) watch as Jeff Burey guides Boyd Jones (age 11) on the proper putting stroke. (Photo: Earl Richardson)

The course is small. The price is smaller: $3 to play all day long.

“Man, what wouldn’t I have given for something like this when I was young?” asks World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson. “Three bucks all day. I’d be around this thing all day.”

Introducing Wee Links, a low-cost, easy-to-maintain short course designed to get youth and newcomers to easily transition from hitting balls on the range to hitting them on a golf course. Tee boxes are 3-by-6-foot rectangles of artificial turf, while the rest of the course is natural grass. The six-hole layout can take as short as 20 minutes to play.

“Tom and I were giving a tour of the course one day, and I said, ‘This is just like real golf, only small,’” recalls Jeff Burey, who created the Wee Links concept. “Tom said, ‘Jeff, wait a minute. This is real golf. It is real golf.’ That’s what he loves about it, that kids can transition from practicing to playing a course and learning how to score.”

Burey estimates it costs $30,000 to $40,000 to build a Wee Links course. The Wee Links at Heritage Park was paid for by the Midwest PGA Section Foundation, the Barbara Ann Cecile Trust and the Watson Youth Foundation and gifted to the county. (Photo: Earl Richardson)

Hall of famers

A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame Class of 1988, Tom Watson needs no introduction. A Kansas native, his illustrious playing career includes eight major championships, 39 PGA Tour wins and 14 additional wins worldwide. He has won 14 times on the Champions Tour, six of those majors. A six-time PGA Tour Player of the Year, he played in four Ryder Cups and served as captain for two.

The addition of the Wee Links course gives the busloads of kids that regularly arrive at Heritage Park a fun, convenient place to learn the game. (Photo: Earl Richardson)

His colleague in this story is Jeff Burey. Also a Hall of Famer, Burey is a member of both the Midwest PGA Section Hall of Fame and the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame. Burey started his golf career following four years in the U.S. Navy. From 1978 to 1981 he was the head professional at Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort. He worked for 25-plus years as general manager and golf director at Wolf Creek GC in Olathe, Kan. He also worked as the general manager at Prairie Dunes CC in Hutchinson, Kan.

(Photo: Earl Richardson)

Most any kid in the Kansas City area who has taken some form of a group golf lesson — through the First Tee of Greater Kansas City, Starting New at Golf (SNAG) or a P.E. class — has been instructed by Burey. Even in semi-retirement, junior golf is Burey’s passion.

Located at Heritage Park Golf Course in Olathe, Kan., is the Wee Links course. Owned by the Johnson County Parks and Recreation District, Heritage Park was already kid-friendly before Wee Links arrived. Junior golf outings are common. The course will host its second GCSAA First Green Program this summer.

(Photo: Earl Richardson)

“We have a lot of junior tournaments and a lot of camps. Our summer is busy with all the kids, and the county has a bunch of summer camps where they’ll bring their kids out,” says Ethan Shamet, superintendent. “They put those kids on our practice putting green. Now, we can have those kids play here too.”

Shamet says maintenance on the course is minimal. It takes 45 minutes to an hour on days they choose to maintain it. The course was an area of native grass before turning into Wee Links. The crew uses one mower for fairways and greens along with a zero-turn to mow the rough.

(Photo: Earl Richardson)

Gauging success

The first tee of Wee Links is a short walk from the Heritage Park clubhouse, the practice putting green and the first tee of the main course. For the record, this isn’t the first ever Wee Links course — Burey created the original one along with Dave Axland, design associate for Coore & Crenshaw (and another Kansas native), at Twin Oaks Golf Complex in Eudora, Kan., a 20-acre practice facility and par three course he owned for 30 years.

Watson was visiting Twin Oaks to help Burey with a junior golf program when he first saw the Wee Links concept.

“I guess he was smitten with it,” Burey says. “He thought this was the answer to get kids to play golf and not just hit balls. So Twin Oaks was the test market, but this one at Heritage Park is the true test market because it’s at a real golf course. The future of Wee Links golf is going to depend on its success here.”

Jeff Burey says the course at Heritage Park came in under budget thanks to the help of Superintendent Ethan Shamet and his crew. (Inset, left to right) Burey with Rob Wilkin, Ethan Shamet and Bill Maasen. (Photo: Earl Richardson)

Rob Wilkin has served as director of golf at Heritage Park for 25 years. He was immediately on board with developing the Wee Links course based on the popularity of the facility with kids.

“You’ve got to be six years old to be on the golf course proper,” Wilkin says. “There’s no place for little kids to start. (The Wee Links) will be great for seniors, juniors and beginners. We’re in a unique situation with the Johnson County Parks and Rec District. I expect to see busloads of kids come in here as one of their stops along the way to camp. We can now introduce, not just 6-year-olds but 12-year-olds, 14-year-olds, to the game and continue to grow it.”

Bill Maasen has worked for Johnson County Parks and Rec for 36 years. He was there when Heritage Park GC was laid out. Now, he works as superintendent of parks and golf courses for Johnson County.

Maasen sees Wee Links as a way to get a younger generation to not only learn golf etiquette and the rules but to fall in love with a game they can play for a lifetime. He believes the model can help other area courses grow its golfing clientele.

“We’re going to put a device out here to count the number of people to go through it,” Maasen says. “We want to prove that this is being used, and we want this to be a model for other courses in the metropolitan area. Maybe we can lead the way.”

“I want to point out how passionate the Johnson County Parks and Rec department has been,” says Tom Watson. “They said, ‘Yes, we want to do this, there’s a great benefit.’ And what do they have? 3,500 kids that participate throughout the year.” (Photo: Earl Richardson)

Giving back to the game

The official ribbon cutting for Wee Links took place on May 6. Behind the dais, Watson praised Burey for his vision for getting more kids into the game. Local TV news crews filmed as a group took off on the short course.

“I love this because it allows me to maybe contribute something back to the game,” Burey says.

The truth is Burey has been giving back to the game since being discharged from the Navy. Burey says he’s been contacted by several golf facilities who would like to add Wee Links to their courses. Time will tell.

“An integral part of any facility is to have a beginner-friendly way to introduce the game,” Burey says. “Success motivates.”

For Watson, he sees the Wee Links course as the way he thinks the game should be taught — start small before going big.

“They can get quickly to the hole, they don’t have to be way out there, hundreds of yards, hitting shot after shot before they get to the hole on the green,” Watson says. “You start teaching someone from the hole back, not from the tee. Fundamentally, this is the way to start the game, I think.