Playing golf around the Show-Me State

The Missouri Golf Tour stopped at the Kennett Country Club Wednesday afternoon, with Mark Schupp putting the local course to the test as part of his state-wide journey around the state.

Upon rolling up to the KCC's Pro Shop after completing the course, Schupp simply said, "This is probably the nicest course I've played in the Bootheel area."

And he would know. Schupp had just completed an exhausting round of trips that began three weeks ago. He started in South St. Louis and played every course down Interstate 55 before stopping in Sikeston. Then, he crossed over to Columbia and played seven courses there before taking swings at every course in Jefferson City.

In the past week, he traveled down past Sikeston and played in New Madrid, Caruthersville, Hayti and Malden before finally stopping in Kennett.

"The Country Club seriously is the best course I've played in the Bootheel, and probably within 50 miles," he explained. "It really is a special place. I like the way they trimmed up. They have pine trees all over the course, and they've trimmed them all up to the upper half or upper third, and it just give it a really cool look. But they've just maintained it so well and there's just really cool things that they've built into the golf course."

Schupp is only the third of the way through a project that began when he retired from a marketing and advertising career in 2014.

"I wasn't really sure what I was going to do," he said about his post-retirement plans. "I know I like to stay active. I'm a Missouri boy through and through. I was born in Kansas City. I went to school at UCM in Warrensburg. I moved to St. Louis in 1980. My mom still lives in Kansas City, so I'm always going back and forth between the two cities. And with business aspects around the state, I'm always traveling. I wanted to take advantage of my sense of adventure."

Aside from his career, Schupp was always driven by his passion for golf. He says that passion began at a very young age thanks to his dad, and it continues to this day.

"My dad was a golfer," he added. "Grew up in Sedalia, Missouri. When I was 10 years old, he took me out to a sand green golf course. It was called Sand Hills. After the first time a struck the ball, after swinging a few times, I fell in instant love with the game. I started playing all the time."

Such love apparently has never waned, because it can only take a serious golf lover to take on a project like the Missouri Golf Tour. There are over 400 courses around the state, and Schupp looks to play at every one, documenting and rating each course for his website.

When he took on the project, Schupp quickly realized that he had his work cut out for him. He carries a powerful camera to each course, taking photos that land on his Facebook page and his website. He even took a class to learn how to build his own website, and he's putting those skills to the test.

"It's extremely time intensive," he said. "When I'm not playing golf--that's the winter months--then I spend those five months working on something pretty major with the website."

Schupp has high hopes for his site. His goal is for Missouri Golf Tour to be the first stop for golfers looking for information on state courses.

"I want to own every aspect of Missouri golf," Schupp said. He recently worked to improve the search engine optimization of his site. Any time some searches for info on Missouri courses, he wants his site to be the first to pop up. "I want to own the best courses in a particular city, that particular course, so if you type in 'Kennett Golf Course,' my website will come up."

The project also offers Schupp a unique opportunity to see the diversity that the state offers.

"Missouri is so diverse in terms of it's landscape and topography," he said. In his most recent trip, he took the time to take the long way around to each course around the Bootheel.

"I'm so enjoying traveling around the back roads of Missouri," he beamed. "This morning, I got up and drove to Malden and back down here. And as I was driving from Hayti to Malden, you can take 55 and cut over, but I just took all the back roads to get there because I enjoy seeing the farmland. I know you guys are used to it, but I just love seeing the farmland. And this is the real Missouri."

Schupp grades each course on a number of factors, ranging from course conditions to walkability. After crunching the numbers, he gave Kennett Country Club an overall grade of 3.5.

"The only thing holding it back from a little higher is it's a little patchy in certain areas," he explained. "On the tee boxes, on the fairways, on the roughs and on the greens even, there are some bare spots and that's not good. They're having some issues I think with the grass. I don't know what it is. But without that, it would almost be a perfect course. It's pretty cool."

Schupp's full review can be found at his website, www.mogolftour.com.