A Kansas City man named Chris Harris demolished his childhood home on Monday in order to build a golf course for neighborhood kids, according to Fox 5 Kansas City.
Harris has been looking to build a pitch-and-putt golf course for 25 years, as it has taken him that long to acquire each lot on the city block he’s eyed up for the course.
Harris’ childhood home was the last standing vacant house on the block. That was until a wrecking crew showed up on Monday to knock down the house and tear it to pieces in order to add another green and six more tee boxes at the Harris Park Sports and Activity Center.
For Harris, it’s about providing children an opportunity that he never had to learn a sport that could improve their lives.
“I just felt like in the neighborhood, I didn’t have the opportunity to get up, come outside and play the game of golf,” Harris said. “I really do believe that if we have the opportunity in the neighborhood, there will be a lot more people playing the game of golf.
My goal is to make sure I come out here and take care of this golf course, make it beautiful. Make the beautification that helps the neighborhood, gives the kids another opportunity to get scholarships. It can open so many other doors along with other sports.”
The course came about through partnerships with a number of non-profits, including The First Tee of Greater Kansas City and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Harris also said that another goal of his course, which is expected to open for business in about a month, was to make it as nice as any on the PGA Tour. Harris said that he takes responsibility for maintaining the course by cutting the grass and cleaning up trash.
Maybe a future champion on the PGA or LPGA Tour will begin his or hers love for golf on Harris’ course in Kansas City.
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