COURSE REVIEW
Pigeon Forge's Gatlinburg Municipal Golf Course will make you forget about Dollywood
By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor
Located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Gatlinburg Municipal Golf Course is one of those Smoky Mountain courses that is worth taking time off from Dollywood. Gatlinburg wows with views and tantalizes with a mixture of ease and difficulty.
 |
|
|
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. - Gatlinburg Municipal Golf Course is actually located in Pigeon Forge, home of Dolly Parton's Dollywood, but it is owned by the city of Gatlinburg, home of Ripley's Believe It or Not and every other tourist attraction in the shadows of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Confused? Wait 'til you get on the golf course.
You can stand on most fairways on this public course and fall over, if you aren't careful. Most of the fairways could double as ski slopes in the winter - they bend, twist, rock and roll like Elvis on vodka.
Parts of the course feel like rural Tennessee: long, lonesome cart rides up and down through leafy, deciduous trees growing on the sides of mountains. Other sections are a mite too close to the heavy traffic whizzing by on Dollywood Lane, jam-packed with tourists hell-bent on their way to see their beloved Dolly and her great gifts, both natural and unnatural.
One thing isn't confusing: Gatlinburg is a terrific public course, one that both wows you with its views and tantalizes you with its mixture of ease and difficulty.
Those last two come in the form of the many hills and mountains, some of which line one or the other side of most fairways and sometimes both. Those high hills can funnel wayward tee shots back toward the fairway, but they can also obstruct your view from the tee and often become hazards themselves.
"The fairways seem to help you out, the way they funnel your ball off the hills, if you can take advantage of it," said Brian Palmer of Knoxville. "It's certainly challenging. I think the layout is great."
I would be remiss if I did not mention one hole right now that sort of sums up this course: No. 12, nicknamed "Sky High." It's a par 3 that starts high in the Smokies and ends somewhere down near China. It's a sheer, vertical drop that will make those prone to vertigo take their medication.
It's a spectacular as well as intimidating hole.
A sign advises you to use your 165-yard club if you're hitting from the 195-yard back tees. Tee shots are lost in the clouds before plummeting almost straight down to earth from what seems like hundreds of feet in the sky. Balls regularly plug in the green, half-buried, for those fortunate few who manage to hit it.
"It's crazy," said Farah Griffith, playing with her husband, Scott, both of Tennessee. "But, it's cool."
Gatlinburg Municipal Golf Course: The verdict
Gatlinburg is an excellent public course, even now when a trailer serves as a temporary clubhouse while a new one is being built.
It's only 6,282 yards from the tips, but the elevation makes some holes, and the course overall, play much longer. Some of the greens have serious elevation, like No. 11, in which you have to club up on your approach, right before you club down on the No. 12 tee. Those two holes will have you rummaging through your golf bag.
If you miss the No. 1 green to the right, you'll end up in Knoxville. No. 9 is a short par 5, but it features a blind landing area with hills on both sides directing your ball back to a fairway that keeps narrowing stubbornly to about 20 yards in width. It would be a great place for an ambush.
No. 17 is a 231-yard, uphill par-3 in which it isn't unusual to see some golfers pulling out driver. The only substantive water is on the closing hole, a dogleg left, where you hit off the tee uphill, then over a lake to the green.
The course is in great shape, both fairways and greens. The greens are large and undulating, some with some challenging slope, and the bentgrass rolls very true.
Gatlinburg is a must play for any golfer traveling though the area. Tell them Dolly sent you.
Stay and play
|
||||||||||
River Stone Resort in Pigeon Forge overlooks the Gatlinburg course, and is at the center of all the Pigeon Forge action, but with terrific views of the nearby Smokies.
Rental condos have one to four bedrooms, and you can choose the golf course, the Pigeon River or mountains to gaze at.
There is a full-service spa and meeting spaces with a four adjoining banquet rooms, each measuring 900 square feet.
They specialize in weddings, but best of all - it's right down the street from Dollywood!
October 3, 2007
Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management. The information in this story was accurate at the time of publication. All contact information, directions and prices should be confirmed directly with the golf course or resort before making reservations and/or travel plans.
