Pros:
- Intense elevation in play throughout
- Variety of shots/lines and basket locations
- Brand new red, white, and blue baskets easy to see and catch well
- Shop/bathrooms on site
Cons:
- Intense elevation in play throughout
- Feels very raw, still a lot of work to be done
- Cost is high for current course condition
Other Thoughts:
I was told by someone who had just made the trip that I should check out Whiskey Hills on my next visit to the Mason County area. While I am glad I made a point to add this course to my itinerary, I left exhausted and unsure of my desire to make a return journey with the course in it's present state.
There are certainly flashes of greatness here, there are some really fantastic holes, including many with more extreme elevation change than I have seen at any other course. A number of holes, including the first 4, are more landscaped and look a bit like they are trying for a Flip City feel with similar stacked rock formations. However, much of this course feels unfinished and raw, and hopefully this is addressed in the near future.
There is a decent amount of diversity here, and I definitely used a number of different discs and shots, but despite playing through a wooded area, there aren't many tight windows to hit, and there is an overabundance of uphill shots that will likely leave you worn out by the end of the round. The course definitely plays much longer than the listed distances given on the course map with all the uphill shots.
I'm glad the shop now provides a very basic hand-drawn map of the course as well as a scorecard with distances, because it was necessary to find the basket or navigate to the next teepad on a number of holes. Hopefully descriptive tee-signs are put up in the future as well, because they would be a great help.
The red, white, and blue baskets are great, they catch well and are very visible, much better than a bare metal Mach V in that regard. The tee pads on the other hand, are no good at all. Where concrete had not yet been poured, the tee pads were made of a rough aggregate that looked a bit like ground up asphalt. This resulted in some fairly large rocks mixed in with the smaller stone, making footing less than ideal. Where concrete had been poured, it was roughly placed in an approximate rectangle within the aforementioned aggregate. These few pads were so short (maybe 3 to 4 feet?) that they almost didn't matter. Good equipment at the tee area, including benches, would go a long way to improving this course.
I had a lot of fun throwing many of the holes at Whiskey Hills, but the lack of good equipment at the tees, untamed rough requiring extensive searching for discs, and excessive number of uphill shots made playing this course more of a chore than I would like. The land here is great, and some finishing touches, and perhaps a few design changes, could make this a fantastic destination course in time.
A final note, I expect mosquitoes when playing courses in this area this time of year, and come ready with bug spray, but the spray does little to fend off gnats, and they were out in abundance during my round, adding another level of annoyance.