Going to Linville for a wedding over Labor Day. Lookin to play, heard Mountain Glen was pretty good. Any tips or other courses close by that are good.

Mountain Glen is very good course. There's O.B. on a lot of holes and a pesky little creek on the front side that's in play on about 7 of the 9 holes. The greens are usually very quick but roll true.

Boone Golf Club is another very good public course in the area. Mostly flat terrain, unusual for a mountain course, and very large challenging greens.

Others to consider would be Mount Mitchell and Grassy Creek although they would be a little farther from Linville than the other two.

Depending on where you are staying, I think a couple of the Lodges/Inns have privileges at Linville Country Club and Blowing Rock Country Club.

You can stay at Esceola Lodge for about $350 a night and that will get you on Linville for about $100. You can't stay anywhere and get on Blowing Rock.

It's possible to get on Grandfather by having your head pro or club manager call for you. Of course it depends on where you might be a member. It will cost you over $150.

There isn't much public golf up here. Boone Golf Club and Mountain Glen have been mentioned, but another one to consider would be Sugar Mountain. It a par 64, but is fun to play. It's normally in good shape and they are known for their fast greens.

All of the private courses in the area are top notch. Grandfather Mountain, Linville Golf Club, Blowing Rock CC, Diamond Creek, Linville Ridge, Hound Ears and Elk River. Too bad they are hard to get on.

I live in Boone, if you need anymore info about the area just PM me.

Oh, I just thought of another one: Linville Falls Mountain Club (formally Blue Ridge CC). It was pretty much destroyed a few years ago in a flood, but has recently been redone. I have not played it since reopening, but I liked it before the flood and I hear they did a nice good fixing it up. It's about 20 minutes from Linville.

One of my wife's sisters owns a house on Seven Devils Mtn. There was a golf coure there called Hawk's Nest or something like that. It's closed now and riding around and looking at what it must have been like is kind of sad.

The views were good and that was it. It was cheap to play, so it was very popular with the Floridians. It was closed over a dispute with the town of Seven Devils. I used to live in Seven Devils, bunch of crooks running that place. For real, one went to prison.

There are really only two places to stay in Linville proper, the lodge or in houses. I guess you could be at the Pixie Inn. If you are staying at the lodge or in a house, you can get access to Linville Golf Club. Easily one of the best courses in NC, and one of the best mountain courses in the country. Old school Donald Ross course made with horses and pans. If you have the chance to play it, you shouldn't pass it up. One of my two favorite courses in the world.

what about redtail mountain? Im coming back there in October and will be staying In Johnson City, TN but making a trip to VA/NC as well.

I just played Redtail and it was amazing, I work at Jefferson Landing in Ashe County, NC and both JL and Redtail are both great courses.

Jefferson Landing is a better and more challenging course, especially from the tips. Redtail is in nice shape though. What condition is JL in this year?

how far is JL from redtail? Is it a close enough to make a 36 hole day out of it?

actually scratch that, didnt realize it was private

It's a pretty good haul anyways. You'll enjoy redtail, you may want to play it twice.

JL is not private these days the owner is having trouble getting people in so its open to the public, last tuesday we had 25 on the books for the entire day. The course is in pretty good shape the greens are pretty quick and the rough is fairly short.