Beech Mountain Resort is known for, and offers, many different activities. There are many great things to do there and many amazing views. Oh, and then there's the disc golf course.
- Apparently this course in its former life was pretty enjoyable. Take the ski lift to the top, play a lot of bomber holes down the mountain, and repeat to complete your 18. Now, you take the ski lift to the top, and all 18 holes are played in one trip down the mountain. And what you get is a lot of short, downhill or across the slope holes.
- Almost every hole has a great view. Some of the holes are somewhat enjoyable as well.
- Baskets are in great shape. I also liked the hand-carved (or what appeared to be hand-carved) tee signs. Gives it a rustic, mountain feel.
- You can lighten your load by leaving the drivers and most discs in the car. 10 of the holes are under 200 feet long, and the longer ones - 300 feet plus - are downhill shots, which play much shorter. The longest 'real feel' hole is #18 simply because at 275 feet, it's relatively flat.
- Course lets you focus on your short game and accuracy. You better be a good estimate of distances and making adjustments for elevation, because if you don't, you're going to have shots sail far past the basket.
- Lots of birdie chances and ace runs.
- The view. The view. The view. If you come here to play, plan for extra time to stop at the deck at the top, maybe grab some food and a drink, and enjoy the scene. It's incredible how far you can see when you're more than a mile up. This in all reality, was the best part of my visit here.

The course is horrible. With the advantage of having incredible terrain and elevation changes, this course somehow managed to still be dreadful. Instead of creating fun and/or challenging layouts, the designer(s) decided to make as many simple and unimaginative layouts. Even if the course was kept as a very simple, short layout, something as basic as moving many baskets left, right, closer to a ledge or slightly deeper in the woods, for example, would have spiced up almost every single hole. These wouldn't even be drastic changes, with many layouts requiring a basket movement of less than 50 feet.
- There was so little thought put into the redesign, that's it's infuriating. I played this course with a fellow DGCR Diamond level reviewer, and time & again, we were appalled by the obvious flaws with the layout. The re-designer(s) clearly are not disc golfers because so many pin placements defy any sense of logic, challenge and/or level of enjoyment. If the re-designer is a disc golfer, please let me show you what a real course should look like. And also, make sure I never play another course you helped design.
- There are major issues with the general upkeep and maintenance. In many places the grass is very high, to the point you have to be on top of your disc to actually see it. On other holes, the rough is so thick and/or dangerous, that you're putting your own safety at risk. On #9, my tee shot sailed past the basket 30 - 40 feet. Searching through the rough, I had several close calls where there were steep drop-offs that were hard to spot because the undergrowth is so thick. Other holes have added danger as you're climbing up or down rocks that pose the danger of being slick and or possible slipping hazards.
- The failed course maintenance, design, and overall attention can be attributed to Economics 101. During the summer, the two primary activities at the resort are mountain biking and disc golf. On the sunny, August Saturday afternoon I played, besides me & my playing partner, there was one other group playing disc golf. Compared to that, there had to be 50 - 100 mountain bikers, if not more, riding the bike trails. As a result, the mountain bike trails looked awesome while the disc golf course was a complete afterthought. We want the course back to its original layout? Dollars speak.
- Hole distances are often inconstant and/or inaccurate. On some holes the scorecards and tee signs had different listed lengths. As stated above, with the issues I had on #9, when you're throwing downhill, it actually is important if the hole (for example) is 150 feet vs 175 feet. The difference could lead to parking a shot or ending up in dangerous rough, or just simply leaving your shot way too short of the basket. Other holes/tee signs were just flat out wrong. The worst culprit was #16. It's listed at 410 feet, when in reality it's probably about half of that.

My visit here was broken into three components: ski lift ride, stopping at the bar at the top for a brew and a view on the deck, and the round of disc golf. The worst of those three by far was the round of disc golf. Even if the course and ski lift ride were free, this would still be a horrible course. As stated in the Cons, I totally understand why the resort has done a lot to appeal to mountain bikers, mostly at the expense of the course.
- The course is so bad, and my round so frustrating that I almost forgot about the $15 cost to play. That's the most I've ever paid to play. By the end of the round, that had actually become a joke to me, that I was the sucker who paid that much for this course.
- Playing with a fellow Diamond-level reviewer, our round took almost 2 ½ hours to play. Part of that was navigation issues - getting lost and some long walks between holes; part due to having to walk extra slow while walking perpendicular to the slope of the mountain; and part due to the time we were talking. What really turned this from a 60 - 75 minute round into a marathon was the amount of time we had to search for lost discs. On #8, I had a putt hit the basket, bounce over the rock formation and get lost. We found it after 15 minutes in the thick grass at an odd angle. Apparently the rough is so thick that you can't even spot a pink disc more than two feet away. I already mentioned the hazards of looking for a disc in the rough behind the basket of #9. Then on #15, we had a disc sail long, downhill, past the basket and disappear. We searched the clumps of grass in the open field behind the basket as well as the woods. Somehow this disc got lost on a simple throw on a wide-open hole.
- There was not one single great hole here, and really not any much above average. Take away the mountain aspect - elevation and scenery - and put this into a normal park, and this would be a horrific pitch-n-putt layout.
- I'm glad I was able to enjoy everything else about my visit to Beech Mountain. Add to that, I had played an elite private course in the region earlier in the day. If not for those factors, I would have really bashed this course. As it is, if your only goal of coming to Beech Mountain is to play disc golf, save the time and money. Use the $15 fee to buy a disc, or a pizza, or donate it to charity. Until this course gets another re-redesign, I won't think about playing here again.
- I'm giving the course a 1.5 rating because that's really all I can justify. Remember that I'm rating a completely different course from what the other reviewers were rating, hence the huge discrepancy. I was slightly tempted to give it a half-point boost simply for the ambiance. That thought was quickly vanquished when I reminded myself it costs $15 to play here.