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Short Mountain Distillery - Red Apple reviews
10
0
Entrancing Woods with Accessible Challenge 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Sep 20, 2020
Played the course:once
Pros:
Located in the pleasant woods, the Red Apple course offers a shorter and more uniform technical challenge than its sister course.
-Natural Beauty: The course's greatest strength. All 18 holes are in an exceedingly pleasant woods biome with plenty of elevation, an occasional creek, and not a lot of undergrowth to catch you up. Cows add to the natural beauty in my opinion. I very nearly just stopped playing and sat underneath a tree for a few minutes to enjoy the environment.
-Shot Shaping/Gameplay: A par-54 course through and through, but Red Apple doesn't have very many gimme shots. The technical challenge is substantial, though the distance required is typically under 250' and tops out in the upper 300s. Holes go up and down, straight and turning, and usually feature lanes that are only a few feet wide. For upper rec and better players, the challenge will be accumulating birdies, not avoiding bogeys.
-Navigation: Despite the lack of a course map or tee pads, navigation is near flawless once you find the first tee. Spray-painted trees mark the way through the woods pretty obviously.
-Playability: That is, despite being a course full of trees, you shouldn't have to spend too much time looking for discs unless the leaves just fell. Similarly, it isn't hard to get to any lies despite the elevation.
-Rec-Friendly: Every hole can be parred even with a bad tee shot. The short length makes scrambles very doable.
-Optional Connector: You can make a 30-hole course by combining Red Apple holes (1)-(15) followed by a loop of White Lightning (A), (13)-(15), (8)-(12), (B), then back to Red Apple (16)-(18).
-Facilities: Restaurant and distillery on site. I can't vouch for it, but it looked pretty delectable.
-Natural Beauty: The course's greatest strength. All 18 holes are in an exceedingly pleasant woods biome with plenty of elevation, an occasional creek, and not a lot of undergrowth to catch you up. Cows add to the natural beauty in my opinion. I very nearly just stopped playing and sat underneath a tree for a few minutes to enjoy the environment.
-Shot Shaping/Gameplay: A par-54 course through and through, but Red Apple doesn't have very many gimme shots. The technical challenge is substantial, though the distance required is typically under 250' and tops out in the upper 300s. Holes go up and down, straight and turning, and usually feature lanes that are only a few feet wide. For upper rec and better players, the challenge will be accumulating birdies, not avoiding bogeys.
-Navigation: Despite the lack of a course map or tee pads, navigation is near flawless once you find the first tee. Spray-painted trees mark the way through the woods pretty obviously.
-Playability: That is, despite being a course full of trees, you shouldn't have to spend too much time looking for discs unless the leaves just fell. Similarly, it isn't hard to get to any lies despite the elevation.
-Rec-Friendly: Every hole can be parred even with a bad tee shot. The short length makes scrambles very doable.
-Optional Connector: You can make a 30-hole course by combining Red Apple holes (1)-(15) followed by a loop of White Lightning (A), (13)-(15), (8)-(12), (B), then back to Red Apple (16)-(18).
-Facilities: Restaurant and distillery on site. I can't vouch for it, but it looked pretty delectable.
Cons:
A mix of fixable and non-fixable items.
-Amenities: Only the very basics. The baskets are a mishmash but catch well. Tees are natural and often feature tree roots. Tee signs are limited to number and occasionally distance. No course map. No path to get to the first tee. With a little money, this course would be a seamless experience.
-Finding the Course: They have made no effort to mark where the course begins. I'm not sure how you were supposed to get there--I asked staff at the restaurant and they told me to go through the gate, but I had to go over it. Regardless, the first tee is located near the creek just inside the woods to the north of the restaurant building.
-Uniformity: It's short woods holes. The challenge level stays pretty similar throughout, as do the types of shots required. Don't think I used a distance driver at all, and barely even a fairway.
-Cows: The course is entirely in the cow pen. That means you might have to skip some holes, and you definitely need to watch your step for copious cow pies.
-Lines: Some of the lines looked a bit hokey. There wasn't anything absurd, but a lot of small gaps and slightly unnatural shapes.
-Amenities: Only the very basics. The baskets are a mishmash but catch well. Tees are natural and often feature tree roots. Tee signs are limited to number and occasionally distance. No course map. No path to get to the first tee. With a little money, this course would be a seamless experience.
-Finding the Course: They have made no effort to mark where the course begins. I'm not sure how you were supposed to get there--I asked staff at the restaurant and they told me to go through the gate, but I had to go over it. Regardless, the first tee is located near the creek just inside the woods to the north of the restaurant building.
-Uniformity: It's short woods holes. The challenge level stays pretty similar throughout, as do the types of shots required. Don't think I used a distance driver at all, and barely even a fairway.
-Cows: The course is entirely in the cow pen. That means you might have to skip some holes, and you definitely need to watch your step for copious cow pies.
-Lines: Some of the lines looked a bit hokey. There wasn't anything absurd, but a lot of small gaps and slightly unnatural shapes.
Other Thoughts:
What a charming course. Throwing gentle technical shots over rolling forest with the mooing of cows in the background was a perfect September afternoon. The course has limitations though of both scope and polish. Due to the short length and lack of variety, I've left it at an upper-level Typical for now, but I think some dedicated improvement could land it a Good. Highly recommend if you want a pleasant casual round with your midranges.
