Signature Holes
Blue Mountain, hole 1
A great friend of mine and professional disc golfer, Dustin Keegan used to tell me that hole 1 sets the tone for the rest of course. At the time many of the courses that I had been building were simple, introductory courses that didn’t always have a lot of options. Hole 1 had to be close to the parking lot and wasn’t always as awesome as I wanted to make it. That is simply not true here. Hole 1 on each of our courses is epic, especially on the Blue Mountain course.
To start with we didn’t feel rushed, like we had to start off right at the parking lot. In fact we leaned in hard the other way. The Blue Mountain course starts a long way up the hill, at the base of ‘Buns Bumps’ for those of you who think in terms of ski runs. We designed this course to let players warm up with some practice holes up the mountain before making their decision on what course to play. For those of you who chose the Blue Mountain hole 1 sets the stage.
The tee pad is incredible. A 7 x 12 foot Casey Concrete paving stone pad that has a 6x11 turf surface mounted on top of it. Players have a solid base to launch their discs up the daunting slope that used to be home to the ‘Green Chair’. It turns out those slopes are a lot harder to climb than carve down. The best throwers in the world can come close to the second plateau from the tee pad, most players will be happy to crest the first.
There is a lovely mix of hemlock and spruce trees that line each side, and although Fiona did some damage to one side of the fairway we have mulched the down trees to make soft landing zones in a few key places just off the fairway. There are some juvenile hemlocks that guard the steep slopes of the bank but bad shots can still roll away a very long way. There are 2 baskets on hole 1 both of which are visible from the pad. The first will be the female Professional distance, the second is made specifically for the world's top professional men. Hole 1 will measure 545 or 657 feet depending on the basket you play to but it will feel much farther since you are throwing at least 2 shots straight uphill.
As the season dries out we will do a little more landscaping to help with the drainage, make the edges of the slope even tougher, and to make a more pleasurable walking experience for those players who chose to take on the ‘big’ course. For now hole 1 is the perfect way to say, ‘Welcome to Wentworth, you’re in for a time!”