The Essence of Golf - For Everyone!
The Perfect Tool to Grow the Game of Golf
Authentic Golf Experience
Wee Links courses provide the fun and strategy of a round of golf condensed into 20 minutes in a highly interactive, intimate setting.
Many Uses and Audiences
Players of all abilities and from all backgrounds use Wee Links courses for beginning lessons, team and individual practices, leagues, tournaments, college classes, parties, and social rounds with friends, parents, and grandparents.
Easy to Install and Maintain
Using only 1 to 1-1/2 acres, Wee Links courses can be located near patrons. They are relatively inexpensive to install and easy to maintain.
What is Wee Links?
A Wee Links golf course is a six-hole, par 18 golf course built on about an acre of land. The longest hole is 30 yards, and the entire course is less than 160 yards long. Greens are 15-20 feet in diameter. The cups are larger than a regulation cup (six inches instead of 4.25 inches) and the flagsticks are five feet tall, so they are easy for young players to handle. Tee boxes are 3x6 foot rectangles of artificial turf. Players use only two clubs, a wedge, and a putter, and they can play with regular, limited flight, or SNAG© (i.e., a tennis ball) golf balls. Six holes can be played in 20 minutes, and 18 holes can be played in an hour. A Wee Links course is both an effective tool for learning the game of golf and an easy way for players of all abilities to enjoy the game together socially.
What Makes a
Wee Links Unique?
Compared to a Pitch & Putt, an Executive Course, or a Par 3 course, it is much easier for players to experience success on a Wee Links. The holes are much shorter. Good tee shots are much more likely. There are no long walks carrying a bag of clubs, and no looking for lost and errant golf balls. There are no bunkers or water hazards to capture golf balls. Putts don’t speed yards past the cup or lip out multiple times. A Wee Links is a more natural setting, and much closer to regulation golf, than the confined, fast, unpredictable carpeted greens of crowded and expensive Miniature Golf or Putt Putt facilities. Players stay more engaged on a Wee Links course.
On a Wee Links, the parts of golf that beginners enjoy outweigh the parts that frustrate them. Both the likelihood and the impact of poor shots are reduced. It is almost impossible to lose a golf ball on a Wee Links course. Players only have to carry two clubs and walk only a few yards to play their next shot. The receptive, predictable greens and generous cups make chipping and putting fun instead of aggravating. Wee Links courses put players in position for success, which spurs fun and grows interest in the game. The enjoyable social aspects of golf are always present. On a Wee Links course, players stay in close enough proximity to interact and share the fun.
Players of all abilities (absolute beginners to PGA Tour pros) enjoy playing a Wee Links. Beginners can negotiate a Wee Links successfully, yet even PGA Tour professionals find it challenging enough to be enjoyable. Wee Links players get to experience what’s fun about golf – having a strategy for getting the ball in the hole, trying a shot, seeing where the ball ends up, trying again, and putting the ball in the hole. A Wee Links course provides the experience of playing golf in a very user-friendly setting that concentrates more golf activity into a smaller space and a shorter period of time.
Does Wee Links Support Inclusion and Accessibility?
A Wee Links course can open the game of golf to many who previously felt uncomfortable or experienced social, financial or physical access limitations. The ease of success in the unintimidating, comfortable, inexpensive Wee Links atmosphere welcomes and encourages those who may not have tried golf for various reasons. The flat terrain, lack of bunkers and penalty areas (water hazards), and proximity of players also make Wee Links courses welcoming to players with physical and cognitive challenges.
How Expensive is a Wee Links Course to Build and Maintain?
A Wee Links is relatively inexpensive to install. It requires very little space and seldom needs extensive shaping of land. It is typically routed without the need for, or expense of, a golf course architect. The largest construction expenses usually involve installing irrigation and sod.
After it is built, a Wee Links course needs minimal maintenance. Hardy varieties of Zoysia grass are used for greens and fairways and fescue is used for perimeter areas. Minimal fertilizer and herbicide applications are needed. A Wee Links has no bunkers or penalty areas (water hazards) to maintain. Irrigation is usually the largest maintenance expense. The entire course can be mown in less than an hour using existing equipment.
Because Wee Links courses reach new players and promise to be so effective in growing the game of golf, donors are often available to assist with construction and maintenance costs for courses built in promising locations.
What do Players Learn on a
Wee Links?
A Wee Links course can be used to efficiently teach putting, chipping, and pitching. Playing a Wee Links course introduces the importance of forming a creative strategy prior to playing a stroke. On a Wee Links, players learn the basic rules of golf, definitions, golf vocabulary, course etiquette, scoring, and good safety practices. Wee Links are also very effective in the introduction of various playing formats and games.
Like regulation golf, Wee Links golf teaches patience, persistence, honesty, confidence, focus, self-control, integrity, humility, and sportsmanship.
Wee Links golf success leads to confidence which leads to more success!
Teaching in the more intimate confines of a Wee Links is easier, more effective, and more fun. Success enhances learning and sparks a desire to continue playing the game. The higher number of shots per minute in a confined environment make learning the game much easier and more effective than on a full-size course or driving range.
Wee Links players also experience a bit of golf history. The Scottish adjective “Wee” reflecting the length of the short course, the proximity of the players and the appeal of the course to young players, and “Links” reflecting the style of the holes, including a double green such as the seven double greens found at the birthplace of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews Links in Scotland.
On a Wee Links course, players learn the game in the fashion recommended by some of the most respected instructors in golf. There is a famous story of legendary instructor Harvey Penick’s first instruction to future major champion Ben Crenshaw. For several months, Harvey had Ben learn the game by taking one ball, a wedge and a putter, chip toward a cup and then putt the ball in the hole. This was the essence of golf, just as Wee Links players experience it.
After learning to play golf on a Wee Links course, players continue to play the Wee Links, and become comfortable playing on longer golf facilities and enthusiastically participate in programs such as First Tee and Youth on Course, US Kids Golf, PGA Junior league and other age-appropriate programming and competition.
How is Wee Links Used for Open Play and Programmed Activities?
Open play on a Wee Links course is very popular for children, parents and their children, grandparents and their grandchildren, seniors, high school and college players, beginners of all ages and accomplished players working on their short games. It can also be a wonderful complement to a full-length course because of its appeal to a wider array of players (such as family members and friends for whom a full-length course is not attractive). Exposure to Wee Links golf creates new players for full-length courses.
It is easier for a group of friends to play on a Wee Links course because everyone need not be an accomplished player. Everyone is more likely to experience success, the proximity allows everyone to share the fun experience, and a round of Wee Links golf takes much less time and effort. The size of a Wee Links course makes it very easy for a parent to supervise play of a child and their friends over the entire round of 6 holes, while still giving the players a degree of independence.
Structured programming on a Wee Links is limited only by the imagination of the instructor, coach, golf professional, or parent. The Wee Links Programming Success Manual lists of over 25 Wee Links programming activities, several of which appear below. Participants enjoy programs conducted on Wee Links courses because they get to play golf instead of playing “driving range.” Instructors appreciate having proximity to all participants and being able to supervise an entire Wee Links course from one vantage point.
Examples of Wee Links programming include:
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Clinics for youth and beginners of all ages
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Fun competition for all ages and child/adult teams
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School and church youth group field trips
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High school golf team short game practices and internal competitions
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First Tee programming
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Special Olympics events
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Birthday parties
The largest day-care provider in the State of Kansas has chosen to install a Wee Links course so its recreation technicians can add golf to the slate of activities offered to the thousands of children they supervise each day during the summer and after school.
A Wee Links course is an ideal way to take golf to underserved populations who do not have access to existing golf facilities. The one-acre footprint, the low construction and maintenance costs, and varied, low-cost programming for all ages make it feasible, affordable and attractive. It can be especially effective in settings where a large number of potential players are already assembled for day care, school or similar activities.
How Are Tax Deductible Donations Made?
The Watson Youth Golf Foundation is pleased to support growth of the game through creation of Wee Links golf courses. Tax-deductible donations for Wee Links courses may be sent to:
Watson Youth Golf Foundation
Wee Links Projects
Suite 1100A
9225 Indian Creek Parkway
Overland Park, Kansas 66210
Please indicate that your donation is intended to support Wee Links projects. Contact Jeff Burey at the address below for wire transfer or other donation arrangements.
How Can I Get More Information About Wee Links?
Please contact:
Jeff Burey
c/o J.F. Burey, Golf Professional & Consultant, LLC
8612 Riley
Overland Park, Kansas 66212
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About Jeff Burey
Jeff Burey - Jeff is a PGA Professional who has worked in the golf business since March of 1973. He served in senior management and as Head golf professional for all six Pinehurst golf courses from 1978 to 1981. In 1981 he became the General Manager & Golf Director of Wolf Creek Golf Club in Olathe, Kansas. In 2008 Jeff became the General Manager of Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson Kansas. Jeff has also competed in three PGA Tour events, the Hall of Fame Classic in 1978, 1979, and 1980.
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In 1991, Jeff constructed Twin Oaks Golf in Eudora Kansas on a 24-acre property with a driving range and a 9-hole Par 3 “Pitch and Putt” course. At Twin Oaks in 2019, Jeff developed his concept of Wee Links golf courses. He then employed Wee Links in programing for such groups as First Tee of Greater Kansas City, Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation instructional classes/ clinics, community fundraising events, Kansas University golf classes. The Twin Oaks also served as a popular practice facility for numerous boys and girls high school golf teams.
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Throughout his career Jeff has promoted golf and junior golf, tirelessly. In 2001, Jeff initiated the Midwest PGA Starting New at Golf program to introduce the game in elementary and middle school PE classes. Teacher training and equipment provided by the PGA Section Foundation enabled over 250,000 kids to experience golf in Kansas and Missouri.
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Jeff is a member of the Midwest PGA Section Hall of Fame and the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame. He has served on the national PGA Education Committee and been involved in numerous PGA business schools and other activities. He currently serves on the board of the Kansas Golf Foundation. He is a past President of the Midwest PGA Section Foundation and founded the Kaw Valley Junior Golf Foundation.