One of last year’s competitors at Pinehurst was especially thrilled with the choice of Sand Creek Station as this year’s host. Parker VanCampen, who lives 35 miles northwest of the course in McPherson, Kan., hopes to tee it up again this July in the Leg Impairment category. He, unfortunately, did not qualify for the championship but should be an interested spectator.
“It puts a spotlight on adaptive golf and the fact there are a lot of us out there pushing through our disabilities and circumstances to play the game,” said VanCampen, 20. “We’re able to be recognized and feel included while competing against other people we might not get to meet otherwise. Out here in the middle of Kansas, I don’t know anybody missing any type of limbs or with impairments who is playing golf. It was fun
to play alongside those people [at Pinehurst] and understand their stories.”
Despite what he considered a disappointing 59th-place finish, VanCampen still left Pinehurst with good memories. “One thing I hold on to are the people I met and how encouraging they were,” he said. “I played a year of college golf and a lot of competitive golf, but the Adaptive Open was different. It’s not like the other golfers were enemies, it felt like they were family in a way, because they understood what I was facing and
supported me. I supported them, too. We were able to laugh together and kind of let loose, versus grinding it out against a stranger."
“What I’ve learned is that these players just want to compete, and how excited they are to be part of such a unique championship,” added Sanfilippo.
Newton’s central location has long made it an important railroad hub – Amtrak trains, including the Southwest Chief that runs between Chicago and Los Angeles, stop at a historic station on the town’s Main Street. This heritage is vividly displayed on and off the course at Sand Creek Station. The 2,200-square-foot clubhouse was designed to resemble a train depot, while tee markers are made from remnants of the railroad track (although USGA tee markers will be used during the championship).
“Around 2017, an employee from BNSF Railway came in with a piece of track about 2 feet long,” Tuohey recalled. “He suggested cutting it into smaller pieces and using it in some way on the course. He cut 150 pieces for us to use, and it gives you another piece of that railroad history. The course logo (a train on tracks with local native grasses) reflects that connection as well.”
Tuohey remembers one golfer being especially amazed by the active rail line during the 2012 national junior college championships.
“We had a player from New Zealand on the 10th tee, and here comes this massive train going by,” said Tuohey. “He stopped, got his phone out, and took a video because he had never seen anything like it in his life.”
A decade after winning the final U.S. Amateur Public Links, Meth also has vivid memories of the local train lines. “My dad and I still joke about a train crossing in the middle of the town,” he said. “We stayed in a hotel on the other side of the tracks, so you had to time it appropriately to get to the course and not get stuck watching a train pass by. I may be exaggerating, but it seemed like 30-40 minutes for one train to go by. But
the town was very charming.”
Tuohey, who started working at the course a few months before it opened in 2006, concurs. “I call Newton the Mayberry of the nation’s heartland,” he said. “People are so friendly.”
Four years ago, Meth returned to Sand Creek Station to play a Monday qualifier for a Korn Ferry Tour event in nearby Wichita. “The practice round was a trip down memory lane,” he said. “I walked into the clubhouse and kept getting looks from people, then they recognized me. The hospitality there was unmatched to anywhere in the world I’ve traveled. The people are amazing. That’s what makes the place special.”
Tom Mackin is an Arizona-based freelance writer who regularly contributes to Golf Journal and the USGA website.
