The Shaft reviews
6
0
If you're already in the area... 2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Jun 19, 2016
Played the course:5+ times
Pros:
-9 Hole course with tee boxes, pole tee signs with the hole number, and permanant metal baskets
-Beautiful MT mountain town scenery. Red Lodge is located along the foothills of the spectacular Beartooth Mountain Range.
-Differing landscape. The course plays through a few different areas that consist of barren field, a wooded area along Rock Creek, and some grassy area near a softball complex that has some nice usage of the trees there as well.
-Free to play.
-Holes 7, 8, and 9 play through the nice grassy area with mowed "fairways" and guarded to quasi-guarded baskets.
-Some decent use of elevation on Holes 3, 4, 6, and 7.
-Quick to play. 9 holes takes me 20-25 minutes tops.
-Beautiful MT mountain town scenery. Red Lodge is located along the foothills of the spectacular Beartooth Mountain Range.
-Differing landscape. The course plays through a few different areas that consist of barren field, a wooded area along Rock Creek, and some grassy area near a softball complex that has some nice usage of the trees there as well.
-Free to play.
-Holes 7, 8, and 9 play through the nice grassy area with mowed "fairways" and guarded to quasi-guarded baskets.
-Some decent use of elevation on Holes 3, 4, 6, and 7.
-Quick to play. 9 holes takes me 20-25 minutes tops.
Cons:
-One-way course. It's roughly(not a straight line) a 1 to 2 "city block" walk back from hole 9's basket to hole 1. Not a terrible death march back, but I'm not a fan of One-way courses.
-Tee Boxes. They're awful. Framed in with landscaping timbers and filled with a loose, fine, rock/dirt mix. They were rutted and soft to the point where, other than 2 standstill drives, I teed off next to them where the natural dirt is nice and firm. They were reworked in the last year or so, so they are no longer approx 4'x4' and closer to 6'x4', but still, not good/safe at all.
-Baskets. Homemade and painted black. They don't have enough chains to catch well and can be hard to see since, well, they're black. I was told that the locals who put the course in wanted them to "blend in". Kind of wish they had wanted them to catch discs as well.
-5 of the holes have no line shaping requirement. Only holes 3, 4, 8, and 9 make you shape a line, most of which are RHBH hyzer.
-No difficulty getting off of the tee on any hole.
-Manure intermittently spread accross the fairways of holes 2 and 5. Not sure if this is used for fertilizer or what since that area is just rough prairie grass. This last trip was the first time I noticed it.
-There is a a new(ish) trail was running down the left side of the fairway of hole 5. Looks to be a BMX trail as there were little jumps and whoops. Creates a park usage conflict where obvious safety concerns are an issue.
-Tee Boxes. They're awful. Framed in with landscaping timbers and filled with a loose, fine, rock/dirt mix. They were rutted and soft to the point where, other than 2 standstill drives, I teed off next to them where the natural dirt is nice and firm. They were reworked in the last year or so, so they are no longer approx 4'x4' and closer to 6'x4', but still, not good/safe at all.
-Baskets. Homemade and painted black. They don't have enough chains to catch well and can be hard to see since, well, they're black. I was told that the locals who put the course in wanted them to "blend in". Kind of wish they had wanted them to catch discs as well.
-5 of the holes have no line shaping requirement. Only holes 3, 4, 8, and 9 make you shape a line, most of which are RHBH hyzer.
-No difficulty getting off of the tee on any hole.
-Manure intermittently spread accross the fairways of holes 2 and 5. Not sure if this is used for fertilizer or what since that area is just rough prairie grass. This last trip was the first time I noticed it.
-There is a a new(ish) trail was running down the left side of the fairway of hole 5. Looks to be a BMX trail as there were little jumps and whoops. Creates a park usage conflict where obvious safety concerns are an issue.
Other Thoughts:
-No amenities. i.e. Bathroom, water, trash cans, benches, ect. unless the softball fields had an event with the porta potties and concession stand open. Never been there when that happened, but wouldn't rule it out entirely.
-Minimal traffic. I've never seen more than 1 or 2 other groups at the course while I've played and generally have been the only one out there.
-If you're a fly fisherman, there's easy access to Rock Creek from the picinic area by the basket of Hole 3. Fun trout fishing depending on time of year/water level. I like to take a break there, crack a beer in the shade, and cast a line.
-Fun course for novice/rec level golfers, casual players, chuckers, or course baggers that happen to be in the area. If you're looking for high quality disc golf, this is not it. At 50 minutes from where I live(in a very low course density area), I only play this if I have time to kill when travelling through Red Lodge and would only take a fairway driver and a putter.
-Minimal traffic. I've never seen more than 1 or 2 other groups at the course while I've played and generally have been the only one out there.
-If you're a fly fisherman, there's easy access to Rock Creek from the picinic area by the basket of Hole 3. Fun trout fishing depending on time of year/water level. I like to take a break there, crack a beer in the shade, and cast a line.
-Fun course for novice/rec level golfers, casual players, chuckers, or course baggers that happen to be in the area. If you're looking for high quality disc golf, this is not it. At 50 minutes from where I live(in a very low course density area), I only play this if I have time to kill when travelling through Red Lodge and would only take a fairway driver and a putter.
1
0
Logander
Experience:
21.7 years
34 played
1 reviews
First review of "The Shaft" 2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Apr 4, 2015
Played the course:5+ times
Pros:
Free to play.
Parking by course.
5 min walk off Broadway for visitors
The course is Beginner friendly on calm wind days with plenty of opportunities for advanced players to separate themselves.
Constantly changing wind conditions make every round unique (some days anything under a 10 over on 9 holes is something to be proud of).
3 Long wide open fairways on several holes offer good opportunities to to work towards 325'-390' drives on any flight path desired.
The course is next to the Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary and you can often see the cute recovering animals with a short walk off hole 1.
Great course developing control in the wind.
Parking by course.
5 min walk off Broadway for visitors
The course is Beginner friendly on calm wind days with plenty of opportunities for advanced players to separate themselves.
Constantly changing wind conditions make every round unique (some days anything under a 10 over on 9 holes is something to be proud of).
3 Long wide open fairways on several holes offer good opportunities to to work towards 325'-390' drives on any flight path desired.
The course is next to the Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary and you can often see the cute recovering animals with a short walk off hole 1.
Great course developing control in the wind.
Cons:
On a calm day a good player can easily birdie every hole.
on a really windy day only 2-3 holes will be reasonably birdieable
course does not often force players to make a specific throw-- hole 1 is throwing N-S across a big E-W down sloping hill, hole 4 has a tree in front of the pad and an uphill shot, and hole 9 is a long dog leg left around some tall trees but that's pretty much it beyond figuring out how to throw with that day's unique wind.
on a really windy day only 2-3 holes will be reasonably birdieable
course does not often force players to make a specific throw-- hole 1 is throwing N-S across a big E-W down sloping hill, hole 4 has a tree in front of the pad and an uphill shot, and hole 9 is a long dog leg left around some tall trees but that's pretty much it beyond figuring out how to throw with that day's unique wind.
Other Thoughts:
This is a wonderful little course just on the north side of town. It was built by locals, and is mostly only played by locals. It has well cemented metal baskets that do not change
