Kansas City Open Invitational Explained

Kansas City Open Invitational
Location:Kansas City, Missouri
Establishment:1949
Course:Blue Hills Country Club
Par:72
Tour:PGA Tour
Format:Stroke play
Month Played:September
Aggregate:268 Wally Ulrich (1954)
To-Par:–24 as above
Final Year:1959
Final Champion: Dow Finsterwald
Map:USA#USA Missouri
Map Relief:yes
Map Label:Blue Hills CC
Coordinates:38.899°N -94.602°W

The Kansas City Open Invitational, which played as the Kansas City Open for most of its history, was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour that was played in the greater Kansas City area in the late 1940s and 1950s. A total of four clubs hosted the event. The first event was held at Kansas City's Swope Park Golf Course, now known as Swope Memorial Golf Course, and is the only public course in the Kansas City area ever to have hosted a PGA Tour event.[1] The Milburn Country Club in Overland Park, Kansas, a par-72, 18-hole championship course built in 1917, hosted the event five times. Kansas City's Hillcrest Country Club, a par-72, 18-hole course built in 1916, hosted the event three times. Two events were held at Blue Hills Country Club, which is also in Kansas City and was built in 1912.

Tournament hosts

YearsCourse
1955, 1957–58 Hillcrest Country Club
1954, 1959 Blue Hills Country Club
1950–53, 1956 Milburn Country Club
1949 Swope Park Golf Course

Winners

YearWinnerScoreTo parMargin of
victory
Runner(s)-upWinner's
share ($)
Kansas City Open Invitational
275 −13 Playoff 2,800
Kansas City Open
269 −19 3 strokes 2,800
1957 279 −9 3 strokes 2,800
1956 273 −15 1 stroke 4,300
1955 271 −17 6 strokes 4,000
1954 268 −24 2 strokes 4,000
1953 269 −19 2 strokes 3,000
1952 Cary Middlecoff (2) 276 −12 Playoff 2,400
1951 278 −10 Playoff 2,400
1950 271 −17 1 stroke 2,600
1949 277 −11 4 strokes 1,000

References

  1. Web site: Swope Memorial course information . 2007-12-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070429135159/http://www.swopememorialgolfcourse.com/view.asp?id=143&page=2055 . 2007-04-29 . dead .