Monroe, WA

Tall Firs DGC

3.845(based on 22 reviews)
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12 0
53Clubs
Experience: 10.6 years 23 played 10 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Great Course - Welcome to WA John Houck 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Aug 23, 2014 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

It has a good mix of technical and long wide shots with really no 'boring routine holes'.
The flow to the play works well, with the holes all tying together well and a short walk from the front 9 to the back 9.
The blues are, in my opinion, fairly dramatically different from the reds (with a few obvious exceptions). Some of the red and blue pads are very near each other, but bring into play some obstacles for the blues that the reds don't have to contend with.
Whether you play red or blue, the flow works very well for 'dive in and start throwing' with the first hole really setting a fairly casual tone, and the second hole warming into some obstacles, then BAM!... trees and turns. Then air it out and make the turns just a little... uncomfortable.
There are, no doubt, some long holes where you get to stretch your arm out (i.e. 13 - blue 909', red 699' - both par 5) and some where you gotta find the path, but it is there.
One thing that I found to be fabulous about John Houck's design is that the baskets are nearly all placed in such a manner that you have to approach them well or you can turn a birdie to a bogey or worse in a hurry. If you want "here's a flat circle with basket in the middle", look elsewhere. Most of the baskets are on hillsides or perched atop a small hill that will punish you with a long run-away drop if you miss. Hole 15, in particular has the basket on a moderate hillside that runs near directly away from the teepad... and into the water. It's not a long hole, but if you address the basket directly on the teeshot, your options are pretty much hit the ace or lose the disc - not a lot of grey area. This doesn't mean you have to be absolutely pinpoint accurate with every shot, it means you have to "approach the basket" - not just "throw at it".

Cons:

One place that will clearly get some adjustment and maturing over the fairly near-term is that there are some areas where the fairways are very tight next to each other - for instance, the fairways for 2, 3, and 10 all share a very tight space, and 11 comes into play as it throws back in the direction of the 10 fairway and trees. This doesn't hurt the play so much, but keep your eyes open and, as they say, "your head on a swivel" - discs are coming in, and if you miss your line by even a little, you can 'unwittingly' find yourself standing in the middle of the next fairway over with discs coming off the teepad.
Another place there are sure to be adjustments is in placing some 'guardian trees' around a few of the teepads. In some places, you can walk up to a teepad, particularly the red teepads but its true for a couple of blues as well, and you don't know there are people throwing nearly across you until a saucer whizzes past your ear. Some of this will be mitigated by maturing trees, and some will probably have trees or other obstacles put in place to improve safety.
The third place there will be tweaking is in 'walking traffic directional and pathing'. Like having a drive that hits a tree and bounces, in some cases even a little, landing you unwittingly in another fairway, you have the opportunity to finish out your hole and start walking to the next without realizing you have just walked yourself into the flight-plan of some 'cannon-armed gorilla standing on the 3 tee (or the 1 tee) who you didn't even know was there and who has just let go of a 50mph saw blade aimed at your throat. No kidding people, when you are walking around, pay attention to where you are standing and what you are crossing. A particularly jammy area in this regard is in walking around the sand trap behind the second basket - if you go the wrong way around, here comes gorilla man and he's aimed at your head, and he just may have had a beer or two.

Other Thoughts:

The reds are pretty generous with the pars - probably should cut back a stroke and make some reds par 3 while the blues are 4.
I am sure this is where I will play most often, and certainly that has some to do with its proximity to my home, but it is also because it is a great place to play and it seems to offer some of everything. I expect that the air traffic control (and 'foot traffic control' for that matter) functions will get worked out - these are fairly small glitches, but glitches for sure, and can be adjusted whether it be with trees, man-made obstacles, walking paths, signs, or arrows, it can be adjusted - for now, keep your eyes open (a good idea when walking around a DG course anyway). - Update - Having played a couple rounds on the day 'after' opening day, it was quite a bit less crowded and the areas that seemed like 'big concerns' (2, 3, 10) were not as scary. They are still pretty tight together, but I think the issues can be solved with a little signage and a walking path (a cool little wooden bridge would be super neat, over the sand trap behind the #2 basket).
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13 0
Thomashasfun
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 22.8 years 496 played 494 reviews
3.50 star(s)

BG 2 DG Conversion 2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jul 14, 2015 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

This is the first John Houck designed course in the state and is on an old piece of land with lots of history. This used to be a par three (ball) Golf course and it was foreclosed on some time ago and now it has been bought and converted to a DGC.

The tee signs and tee pads remind me of Horning's Hideout near Portland, OR. Both the signs and pads are extra large and the tee signs show amazing detail as well as accurate distance from tee to basket. There are free course maps available at the pro shop (where you pay) for the few tricky areas but overall navigation isn't too tough. The biggest problem is getting on the tee pad, looking out over the fairway and seeing two or three baskets that could be the correct one but a little investigation and you can figure it out easily.

I really like how the course keeps you from getting comfortable like a really good baseball pitcher will change speed and location this course switches between par four 550+ feet mostly open holes to 225 foot holes in dense trees. It goes like that for a while back and froth. The property has some small hills and a little bit of elevation that was mixed in beautifully. Holes like #10 make me smile with a moderately low ceiling, moderately wooded well defined fairway downhill, dogleg right. Then the basket is tucked up under a tree with low hanging branches and on a small hill making your upshot tricky if not careful. This hole is only 265 feet or so but is one of the toughest par three holes on the course as well as one of the funnest.

There is a lot of out of bounds here both 'artificial' and natural. There are two ponds on the course with the blue tee for 16 throwing directly over the pond, with maybe 200-225 feet needed to clear, this hole is also slightly uphill making this a little harder than you might think. The previous hole (#15) is a short downhill throw with the basket on the top of a slope heading straight for the pond 20 feet away. Usually I would call a downhill less than 200 foot hole an ace run but unless you hit the ace you're going to have to go fishing or wading for your disc. The artificial' out of bounds is of course neighbors yards, across paths and across adjacent fairways that have been mowed and flags have been placed in the grounds to help out even more. The course is a bit crowded in areas (more on this in the cons sections) so the OB in these circumstances as well as the mandos protecting certain areas not only maker the course harder but are necessary in keeping it safe as well.

Cons:

Like I said the course is a bit cramped in areas and there are a few spots where it can be a little dangerous. The walk from nine to ten takes you across two or three fairways and every time I go through that area I keep my head up and pay close attention to what's going on.

They have went and planted trees on the open holes and this will make it more challenging and fun right now they aren't tall or big enough to really effect shot selection or punish bad throws. This will take care of itself with time though.

The short tee pads (red) are designed with new players in mind and do that quite well as these holes are the same par but are much much closer than the more interesting blue pads. I'm not a huge fan of shorter tee pads (even though sometimes it's needed) I'm much more interested in just different tee pads. I like two tee pads with two different kind of shots maybe the red blue pad is a hyzer and the red pad is somewhere else and is an anhyzer but they are roughly the same distance but I digress...

Other Thoughts:

The history of this property dates back to 1928 when it first opened as a 3 hole (ball) Golf course and is interesting, I recommend checking out the history of the course on the Tall Firs Facebook page and you don't need to have a Facebook account. This place has a club house/pro shop and a bistro is in the works as well. You've gotta hand it to Paul Clark and John Houck for getting a decent course here in Snohomish County.
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