# Flint Hills National Golf Club vs. Terradyne Country Club: The Andover Choice

Source: https://thecourserankings.com/blog/flint-hills-national-golf-club-vs-terradyne-country-club/

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Course Comparisons / Kansas


A golf course in autumn foliage. Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Andover, on the east side of Wichita, holds the strangest pairing in Kansas golf. One club is a private Tom Fazio course that debuted at No. 43 on Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest list. The other is a semi-private course built to look like Scottish links in a state that has no coastline, with a lighthouse behind its 12th green. Same town, same Butler County ground, entirely different ideas.

## Flint Hills National Golf Club

Flint Hills National was founded in 1997 by Tom Devlin, who made his fortune as the founder of Rent-A-Center. He hired Tom Fazio, working with Dennis Wise, and set the course in wooded hills east of Wichita, a rarity for Kansas golf, where the default landscape is open and flat. It plays par 71 at 7,080 yards with a 75.4 rating and a 144 slope from the tournament tees. Those are championship numbers, and the championship record backs them: the 2001 U.S. Women's Amateur, the 2007 U.S. Senior Amateur, the 2017 U.S. Junior Amateur, and the Trans-Mississippi Amateur four times, in 2003, 2009, 2015, and 2024.

The practice facility alone covers 31 acres, with nine bentgrass target greens and a practice hole. GOLF Magazine ranks it No. 2 in Kansas. Flint Hills is the complete private club argument: conditioning, pedigree, and a course that identifies champions across three different USGA events. If the question is simply which course is greater, this argument ends quickly.

## Terradyne Country Club

Terradyne makes the more interesting case for an actual golfer in Andover, which is why this comparison exists. Donald Sechrest designed it, opened in 1987 by the club's account, with Golf Digest listing 1988. It was built with a Scottish links inspired look uncommon in Kansas: broad exposed fairways where wind is the central defense. It plays par 71 at 6,843 yards, rating 73.8 and slope 139, so the links costume is not a soft touch. The golf is genuinely demanding, just demanding in weather rather than in trees.

The honors are local and real. Golf Digest rates it four stars, Golfweek has recognized it among America's best courses, and the Wichita Eagle named it the Best Golf Course in Wichita for 2023. A renovation directed by Todd Clark with Ron Whitten was completed in the early 2020s. The property adds a 3 hole practice course with a par 3, par 4, and par 5, plus a 300 yard driving range. And it is semi-private, which changes everything about access. Flint Hills requires membership or an invitation. Terradyne can actually be played.

## The verdict

Flint Hills National is the winner on the golf, clearly. A top 50 debut on the national list, three USGA championships, and Fazio's wooded routing beat a fine regional course on any architecture-first scoring, including ours in [the Kansas ranking](/blog/the-5-best-golf-courses-in-kansas/). If an invitation arrives, take it without a second thought and play the tournament tees only if your game can cash that check.

Terradyne wins the week, though, and the concession cuts toward it hard. It is the course an Andover golfer can build a life around without a private club's entry cost, estimates for which at Flint Hills' level run well into six figures, strictly an estimate. Wind, width, a lighthouse on the 12th, and a slope of 139 will keep a member interested for decades. Greatness belongs to Flint Hills. Belonging belongs to Terradyne, and most golfers, given the honest choice, should pick the course they can play every Saturday.

Kansas's public and collegiate side of the argument is at [Colbert Hills](/blog/colbert-hills-golf-course-profile/), a different test in a different part of the state.

**Reader responses are open.** Please cite a specific hole, a price, or a round you have played.