News
   Valley Center
   Park City
   Kechi
   Bel Aire
   School
   Sheriff
   Police & Fire
   Deaths
   Looking Back
   Heard on Main Street
Municipal Court
Sports
   School Sports
   Rec League
People
   General
   Birthdays
   Engagements & Weddings
Opinions
   Editorials
   Letters
   Commentary
Columns
Church
Advertising
   Classified
   Legal

Rec commission director Steve Geddes cuts a ribbon during a ceremony to officially open Valley Point Golf Course as chamber of commerce, city and rec commission officials look on.

There’s a golf course in town
By Taylor Messick
Last Updated: July 14, 2016

On July 2, the Valley Center Recreation Commission held a day of events to celebrate the opening of its new nine-hole golf course  located at 820 N. Emporia, just east of the McKay-Petrie Sports Complex.

The day's events included a walking tour of the course, a barbecue lunch and a grand-opening ceremony. The rest of the day was dedicated to free nine-hole rounds of golf which were available to those in attendance.

Although the late afternoon rounds were interrupted by heavy rainfall, the opening ceremonies had a good turnout. Around 50 people attended the initial celebration and showed support for the community's newest attraction. The director of the recreation commission, Steve Geddes, was overcome with emotion at the ceremony. Geddes was grateful to those involved with the project, as well as the members of the community who showed their support.

"This was a major, major team effort," said Geddes. "This golf course is 10 months old — and that's it. I think the way it looks right now is excellent and it's going to look even better. I'm really happy for the community around here. I think Valley Center, Park City, Kechi, north Wichita, Sedgwick and all these people around here are really going to enjoy this."

The golf course architect responsible for the design of the course was Taylor Zimbelman. Zimbelman is also the co-owner of Zimbelman Construction, the company that built the clubhouse. He is a Wichita native who has spent the last 16 years designing about 75 courses in 20 different countries. He has worked on courses of all types, from high-end country clubs to smaller, daily fee courses.

"What really got me excited about this is that I really believe this type of facility is in demand," said Zimbelman. "We're losing golfers because they don't want to spend so much time at a big, 18-hole course; so this really fills a need. I believe they're kind of on the pioneer end of this. These types of facilities are going to jump up everywhere, not just rural areas. Big cities are also going to get these because people don't want to spend five hours or more playing."

Zimbelman believes accessibility is important from a standpoint of time, but he also designed the course with accessibility to all skill levels and age groups in mind. Though the course is nine total holes, there are six- and three-hole loops available for those hoping to play an even quicker or less difficult round.

A unique feature of this course is that it uses fairly newly developed artificial greens, which will keep watering and maintenance costs at a minimum while keeping the course looking good. The developer of these greens is Lance Pierce of Versa Sport, who used his engineering background to develop the technology. The greens consist of about five layers of various materials underneath with a specific type of finely braided yarn on the top level which is cut to allow the material to sprout and imitate natural grass as closely as possible. Pierce says that without his technology, the course may not have been possible.

"The whole idea of artificial greens has been around for a long time," said Pierce. "It's just that the right product hasn't been available for people to get the right impression of how they can play. That's what our product is all about — creating a realistic simulation to a natural grass green. Natural greens are great in areas where you have a pool of resources to draw upon, but if you don't, this is a great alternative. Their access to water here was a big concern because of the limitations on water well permits. They wouldn't have had enough water for natural grass so this material created an opportunity for this course to happen."

Community members who played the course on opening day seemed to enjoy their experience and gave almost entirely positive feedback. One golfer who completed a nine-hole round before the rain hit on opening day was Brian Phipps.

"I was really impressed," said Phipps. "It's the first time I've ever seen the artificial greens and I thought the design from tee to green — the whole layout — was impressive. They've got four different sets of tees, which makes it easy for the beginners, but it is definitely challenging enough if you want it to be. They obviously put a lot of time and effort into it and I think it paid off."

Valley Point Golf Course is open daily from 6:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. and tee times run from 6:45 a.m. to 7:15 p.m.. The course offers push cart and golf trike cruiser rentals. There are also punch passes available for frequent golfers that can be purchased at the club house or the recreation commission.





Trending Stories
Valley Center Contact The Ark Valley News

Valley Center Another phase of housing gets started

Legals SEDGWICK COUNTY PUBLIC NOTICE

School Dance theme: ‘Blast into the Past’

Valley Center ‘Blast into the Past’

Other Sections
News

Sports

People

Columns

Opinion

Contact Ark Valley News | Archives