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Mountain Top, PA

American Legion DGC

Permanent course
3.085(based on 19 reviews)
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American Legion DGC reviews

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6 1
jrawk
Experience: 14.8 years 85 played 13 reviews
2.00 star(s)

A nice Club course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 19, 2014 Played the course:once

Pros:

Update: 4/23/14 - I received a message from one of the designers and he confirmed that restrictions were placed on removing foliage to find tune fairways and the trailors we're put on 7's fairway without warning. They are currently pursuing a revision to hole 7. I have to give the course designers some praise here because given their restrictions, they really identified the best parts of the land for holes which is the hardest part of course design especially when you can't cut foliage.
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I rated this course a "2.0 - Reasonable" because "reasonable" is how i'd describe the course to others who have not yet played it. I feel my review below supports that rating.

The most notable thing I took away from this course was the Designers' obvious intimacy with the land used for almost every hole. Some other reviews state there are some lengthy walks between holes. Nothing was huge (other than 18 to 1), it is obvious the guys building this course knew the best parts of the woods with unique features to drop in a challenging hole. There are some unique rock formations (natural and/or handmade) that come into play, as well as the elevation changes. It is unfortunate that many holes (4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11) are designed near or sometimes on top of areas used for other activities.

The wood burned tee signs are beautiful and effective. Bravo to whomever took the time to create them all.

As of April 2014, seemed like all holes had direction arrows pointed the way to the next tee pad, however, we didn't find a definitive tee pad or tee sign for hole 11.

Cons:

Very plug and play. Unfortunately this course has an overwhelming feeling that the designers said "plug the tee pad here, plug the basket there, ready? let's play". Perhaps I didn't look hard enough, but I did not notice many stumps or tree limbs removed to facilitate a refined/tweaked fairway. At least the places where they put those tees and baskets were chosen wisely for the most part.

I feel like widening/defining a few of the front 9 wooded fairways would go a long way on improving the course. The poke-and-hope method takes over early, as me and my friend traded exchanges 3's and 6's every other hole. When I'd get a 3, they'd get a 6. When they'd get a 6, I'd get a 3..... on 280ft par 3's. We both got frustrated quickly. And I knew I better wait a few days before writing a review.

Balance and Bias - The majority of the course is RHBH biased with most baskets finishing on the left side of the fairway from the center of the fairway. There are some dog leg rights on the back 9 that add a little diversity, but even those have a basket positioned on the left side of the fairway. I usually don't pay any heed to this when reviewing courses, however for how heavily wooded these fairways are, basket-position balance should be considered when most holes have very limited recovery options. Sometimes even an overhand shot was not a recovery option for a lie 5 feet off the "fairway".

Hole 7 basket was hard to find because it was behind some trailers. This hole has an extra alternate tee location that is to be used when the grass/gravel parking lot it plays over is being used. The day we played the parking lot was without cars, however the top side of the lot ( the side closest to the basket) had 4 semi-permanent trailers parked end forming a square (each trailer was a side of the square). From either tee pad, we didn't feel comfortable throwing at the basket tucked behind those trailers so we skipped it and went on to hole 8.

Hole 11 tee is not easy to find, and I still question if we played from the correct spot. We ended up playing from what appeared to be a toe board in the middle of the gravel roadway that runs between the woods and the baseball back-stop. There were no markings or orange cones nearby as others have mentioned in their reviews.

Hole 18 finishes very far away from the cars, and even farther away from hole 1 tee. This, too me, is only a big deal if the course will host shot-gun start events when players would not be starting on hole 1.

Other Thoughts:

While it's a nice Club course, it is not a tournament friendly course. The long walk from hole 18 to hole 1 doubles back across many other fairways. Too many delays would be needed to allow the players to walk from one end to the other so they can continue play. The property would have to specifically halt many other activities such as organized baseball, skeet shooting, anything that requires overflow parking.
As an out of towner without knowing the current conditions at the property (ie. Will a baseball game prevent me from playing a hole or two) I don't think I will come back the next time I'm passing through visiting family. I will likely continue on to a different course I have not yet played.
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3 1
nstraz
Experience: 14.1 years 69 played 3 reviews
2.00 star(s)

Long walks and tight fairways 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 15, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

Free to play
Tight technical course
Good signage at tee boxes
Lots of "Next Tee" signs on first 7 holes

Cons:

Long walks between many holes
"Next Tee" signs drop off after hole 10
Some fairways are huck-and-hope.
Hole 18 finishes far away from hole 1's tee.

Other Thoughts:

I stopped here as a rest stop while traveling across PA on I-80. I played at noon on a week day and there was no one else playing. There were police officers using the hill below hole 8's basket as backing for target practice so we didn't play from hole 7 to 9.

There is plenty of room between some of these holes for additional holes to be cut.
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