RED LODGE — Red Lodge Mountain held its first major disc golf tournament on Sunday to close out its final summer operations weekend.
Red Lodge opened the mountain for the first time in June for the summer. They opened on Fridays through Sundays with their final weekend ending on Labor Day. The Stache Express and the Bierstube restaurant were open for people to enjoy.
Over 30 people were out golfing in the Huck Around Disc Golf Tournament. Seth Neuhoff, Matt Mallick, and Steve Covello were competing together on the downhill course.
“It's been a good time. Haven't shot the best, but that's okay," said Mallick.
"But look at the view behind us. We have a spectacular view of Lazy M and the rest of the great runs, and we're doing pretty good," said Covello.
The scenic 18-hole course has been a new feature for the lodge and the sport has brought many players each weekend to participate.
“Our new disc golf course has been a hit amongst everybody who's been playing. We've been running a weekly league,called Beartooth Mountains Disc Golf League with a bunch of local sponsors. We've had some great turnouts. We're reallybuilding a foundation of interest in disc golf here too," said Red Lodge Mountain marketing manager Jack Moore."Weekends up here used to be a ghost town. There used to only be a couple of cars up here and now there's a buzz every weekend, Friday through Sunday."
For Red Lodge Mountain, the season was a success that many came out to enjoy and are looking forward to coming back the next year.
“I think mountain courses are a lot of fun, and this is by far the closest mountain course to Billings where I live. Makes it easy to come out and play some great golf out on a beautiful course," said Neuhoff.
In addition to the course, the mountain has also made plenty of other improvements, like building walking and biking trails for easy access up and down the mountain. Their newest addition is a wedding venue at the top overlooking the Big Horn Mountain range.
“One of the things we've been working on is where I'm standing right now, our new on-mountain ceremony site. We call it the Palisade Site. It affords us just beautiful views behind me here," said the resort's director of marketing and sales TroyHawks.
The mountain hopes to add even more improvements for next year, like signage around the trails and disc course. They also hope to host kids camps or school groups to expand their days of operation.
“Right now, the way the course is playing and the way the construction went, everything's playing really well. Now it'sjust making it more aesthetically pleasing and just helping guests know where to go," said Moore.
Hawks says that the summer operations have helped to round outround out their year to offset slower winter seasons. It gives their employees year-round employment.
“Last year was kind of a low snow year, so it's been a nice boom to our business to be able to open up for the summer. It all met some of those revenues and earned some revenue in the summer months as well," said Hawks.
The summer months have been a fun addition for not only the mountain, but locals in the area. Max Maynard, Devin Kohn, and Wes Salter were all golfing together in Sunday's tournament and said they enjoy coming to the mountain when they can.
“It's fun. It's nice weather, not a lot of wind,” said Maynard and Salter. "I think just for the mountain it's going to open up a lot of opportunities for more summer operations to come."
“Mountain courses for disc golf aren't really a common thing. There's only so many across the country and only a couple in Montana, so it's really cool that we get to have one so close to us and get to enjoy it year-round up here,” said Kohn, who also participates in the weekly leagues.
As the season comes to an end, the mountain now plows forward to winter.
“We're going to shut it down for a few months. We've got some maintenance projects to do on the lifts, the normal maintenance, and we'll be back open here in a couple months and ready for a nice winter season," said Hawks.
