Long Trout Disc Golf Course Description (in Disc-Golfer Lingo)
The course is set on the property behind the home of Tom and Kim Leibensperger, and the first tee launches from the patio of their winery. The course was designed by Skeeter Hoffman, and prior descriptions of it playing like South Mountain are somewhat accurate, in that the course looks like South Mountain did when it was installed in 1997, long before the masses opened everything up. There are some steep hills, a few rocks, but certainly very narrow fairways. The fairways on the tightest holes are only six or seven feet wide, and as with all new courses, there’s a lot of little stuff if you get off the fairway. With a perfect throw, however, you can reach the basket of all the holes, as most are in the 200-300 foot range and the longest is about 350 feet. The first five holes wind their way up through the woods, and hole six plays directly downhill. Holes seven and eight are anhyzers / lefty hyzers that play in an open field, and hole nine throws through a tight gauntlet and then over the koi pond behind the house!
The back nine plays similarly, with the holes tick-tacking their way up the hill until holes 15 and 16 play severely downhill and back to the open. Hole #17 is an instant classic – it’s only 200 feet long, but you must throw through a mando (mandatory)of two large trees spaced only about ten feet apart, about halfway to the pole hole. The aforementioned pole hole hangs from the barn. The local rule is that any shot that does not pass through the mando incurs a penalty stroke, although with the barn wall right behind the basket as a backstop, there’s no reason not to go for the ace run. Hole #18 ends with a pole hole position perched precariously above the pond, and any ace run that misses will certainly result in “fish food.”
The course has nice mix of gravel tee pads and wooden tee decks. Tee signs and tee direction arrows on each of the 18 cement pole holes make it a self-directed course. Amateurs and pros alike will experience the utmost technical challenge. Course improvements are an on-going labor of love.