Sand Creek Station, host of the 2014 USGA Public Links Championship, and the 3rd U.S. Adaptive Open, is no stranger to hosting high level championships. Located about 30 minutes North of Wichita on I-135, this south central plains gem is accessible from all parts of the state of Kansas.

2026 celebrates Sand Creek Station’s 20th anniversary. Course architect, Jeff Brauer, added several classic hole templates into this track.

The long Par-5 fourth hole incorporates a classic Biarritz style green complex early in the round. Typically running the length of the green (and usually on a par 3, though not always), this unique green complex instead incorporates a Biarritz in the width of the green on a par 5.

Hole 10 is a beast, measuring 640 yards from the back tee pad, and typically plays into a prevailing south wind with penalty areas on the left and right side of the hole. It’s rumored that if you make birdie, you walk away with a tee shirt.

The 13th hole features another classic template – Redan. Redan’s traditionally range 180-230 yards that typically incorporate a 45-degree right to left oriented green, with a bunker down the left. The original Redan is featured on the 15th hole at North Berwick in Scotland.

Spectacle Glasses feature two bunkers in the middle of the fairway that resemble a pair of eye glasses, as seen on the Par-4 15th.

Maybe the most famous Road Hole in golf comes at the 17th hole at St. Andrews. The 16th hole at Sand Creek Station is just that. This hole features a pot bunker short, a shallow, but wide green, and Out-of-Bounds directly behind the green. Great scores can be made on the Par-5 16th, but so can big numbers.

Sand Creek Station is a fun course, and hosts The Railer – Kansas Stroke Play Championship annually. If you’re in the Wichita/Newton area, make a stop. This is a course you need to play.

Click HERE to view additional photos of Sand Creek Station. 

Kansas and Central Links Golf tournament players may have wondered what happened to Greg Goode this year. The Salina resident hasn’t been seen around these parts for some time.

Well, the three-time Kansas Senior Player of the Year set his sights on national and world Super Senior ranking points in 2024 and has been in hot pursuit of those goals all season.

After winning three national events in the fall of 2023, Goode committed to playing a national schedule in 2024. He played in 22 events around the country, concluding with the Golfweek Tournament of Champions in Florida on December 15^th.

By the end of that tournament, he had locked up Super Senior Player of the Year honors in the Society of Seniors — an independent national golf organization — and was second in the Golfweek Super Senior rankings. On the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) points list, Goode finished the year in 12^th place for players 65 and over. In the AmateurGolf.com rankings, Goode finished 4th.

The Golfweek POY goal eluded him only because in one event early in the year he inadvertently entered as a Senior, rather than as a Super Senior, and those points don’t transfer. If he could have added his Senior points from that one tournament, he would have been a runaway for the Player of the Year honor.

Highlights of the year included two victories, one in New York at the Jack Hesler Tournament, and the other in Las Vegas at the Golfweek Desert Showdown. He also had a second-place finish in the Society of Seniors National Super Senior Championship in Portland, Oregon. Goode had eleven top five finishes in the 22 events he entered.

Time zone changes, weather, making travel arrangements, adjusting to different kinds of grasses and course conditions is challenging, he said. But asked what inspired him to devote the full year to pursuing top honors in competitive tournament play, Goode said,

“I started on this journey six yeas ago. Don Kuehn encouraged me to play in the Golfweek National Senior Match Play Championship at Tobacco Road in North Carolina. I watched him win his flight and from then on, I was hooked. I’ve played in a few ‘national’ events every year since. There’s nothing quite like it. These are the best players in the country.

“I also appreciate Central Links Golf and their rigorous schedule, competitive environment and professionally run tournaments. It makes a big difference to come out of that kind of competition. It prepares you for playing a tough schedule against the best players. CLG does a heck of a job developing players of all ages. We’re lucky to have them,” he said

Goode plans to return to a Central Links Golf schedule in 2025. Could a fourth Kansas POY be in his sights? (You’ve been warned!)

Article written by Don Keuhn