Hidden Gem in the Blue Ridge: Sapphire Mountain Golf Club 

Rubies, emeralds, diamonds and other precious stones have long been found in the North Carolina mountains. 
But for golfers, a gem of a different kind is waiting to be discovered here - an enchanting course appropriately named Sapphire Mountain Golf Club.  
Tucked away in a valley just off scenic byway 64 about an hour west of Asheville, Sapphire packs all the unique pleasures of North Carolina mountain golf - including dramatic elevation changes with equally dramatic vistas - into one of the most delightful rounds you'll ever play anywhere.
Sapphire's first hole is benign enough, as a good opening hole should be - par 5 uphill and dogleg left to a smallish green sloping pretty severely from back to front.
But the real fun begins on hole number two.
Have you ever been in a golfcentric bar and seen those framed prints of fictional golf holes where the tee is on one cliff and you have to hit to a thin sliver of a green on the side of a mountain across from it?
Sapphire's second hole might just remind you of that.
A sign actually instructs you to walk to the edge of the cliff-like tee to make sure no one is on the imperceptible ladies' tee below. As you gaze at the green 203 yards away from the blues, and vertically some 40-50 feet down, you can't help but experience a curious mixture of fear and laughter.
Not four feet from the left edge of the putting surface, a massive boulder pokes its weather-beaten brow out of the side of a rather steep hill, ready to bounce any slightly pulled or hooked shot into oblivion. Everywhere else around the green is basically a sheer grassy cliff, waiting to feed errant golf balls to a creek down below.
As your tee ball hangs in the air and then begins its descent, your breath and your heartbeat seem suspended too, awaiting the result.
(Don't sweat it. If the boulder or the chasm devours your ball, you'll find a very compassionate drop area to the front and left of the green.)
The third hole is a smart contrast to its predecessor - a 402-yard par 4 with rhododendrons and pines lining the right side, and a mountain stream and more rhododendrons bordering the left. After you hit your drive slightly uphill to a plateau, you then behold yet another stunning setting for a green, with a steep, bowl-like embankment serving as a backdrop, topped by towering pines and fir trees.
Your approach shot is to a two-tiered green, sloping rather severely from back to front and well guarded by bunkers front-left and long-right. If you achieve decent height on your 8 or 7-iron, your ball seems to hang in the air against the spectacular backdrop forever.
The next hole gives you something of a break - a straight-ahead par 4 (410 from the blues) that's fairly flat all the way to the green. The mountain vistas that serve as the backdrop here may be the most breathtaking yet - so at this point, if your pulse rate hasn't been ratcheted up a couple of notches, you may want to check and make sure you have one.
The fifth hole is a deceptively long par 5, 518 yards from the blues. The optimum drive is a slight fade around some pines on the right to a relatively generous landing area. You're now confronted with a long second shot up a very steep hill to a miniscule green.
Where your approach shot seemed to defy gravity forever on the previous two holes, it now behaves entirely different.
Just after the parabola of your fairway wood or long iron shot reaches its apex and begins its descent, it seems to abruptly screech to a halt - thanks to the severe slope of the hill. You then face a delicate uphill shot to the tiny green, which features steep, sheer embankments all around it and wicked sloping from back to front on the putting surface.
All in all, this hole is an ingenious use of the available land.
The next hole once again serves as the perfect contrast to the previous par 5 - a sweet little 130 yard par 3 all downhill over some rhododendrons and a creek to a relatively large green.
"That's one of the real beauties of this course. There aren't a bunch of hard holes in a row, or a bunch of easy holes in succession, either. The architect just seems to have orchestrated the perfect blend from beginning to end," says Steve Martell, Head Golf Professional.
A fairly straightaway par 4 to a slightly elevated green is then followed up by a daunting, lovely par 3,180 yards from the tips, downhill and over a lake. A beautiful stone wall bolsters the thin sliver of a green in front, while two bunkers guard its rear, with pine trees behind and on the left.
The ninth is a par 4, doglegging slightly right, and only 315 yards from the blues. But again, the green is tiny, and perched up on a severely sloping hillock or plateau. A pinpoint wedge shot is required to stay on the putting surface.
As you finish up the front nine, it suddenly occurs to you that you haven't seen other golfers playing on other holes for quite a while.
"Because of the way the course is routed, each hole is kind of like its own isolated little environment," Martell says. "So you get to savor each hole without any distractions.
"Like the front, the back nine begins with a relatively easy hole - a short, uphill par 4 - followed by a stunner of a par 3 - 194 yards from the blues, with a vertical drop of some 60 feet to a green with a sparkling mountain stream curling around to the left and in back. It's another hole where your tee ball hangs in the air, seemingly pausing to take a look at the gorgeous vistas all around, before it reluctantly plummets to the soft green below.
The twelfth - a fairly simple par 4 - is then followed by perhaps the most astonishing hole of them all, the 401-yard par 4 thirteenth.
It begins with a tee shot with a vertical drop of 100 feet to the fairway below. Trouble lurks on the left in the form of a babbling mountain brook, so the smart tee shot is about 250 yards to the right hand side of the fairway.
When you descend down to catch up with your drive, you then look up to behold a sight you won't soon forget: a green perched 30-40 feet up above the fairway, with a steep embankment guarding it short and left, and on the right hand side - are you ready for this? - a roaring waterfall measuring 15 to 20 feet across.
"It's a hole you can't help but just stand and marvel at, because almost everywhere on it, there's a gorgeous vista to look at - on the tee, looking up from the fairway in either direction, and then on the green, looking out over the waterfall," says Martell.
As the course moves toward its conclusion, one simply begins to run out of superlatives - particularly for the jewel-like par 3 fifteenth, with yet another dramatic vertical drop to an island green located in a hushed little vale.
A succession of terrific par fours then finish off the course with a flourish.
As you ride back toward the clubhouse, you can't help but wonder - how could such an impressive, delightfully fun golf course be such a well-kept secret?
The main reason is probably that a few years ago, previous management let the club go a bit to seed. But beginning in 1999, Martell and his charming wife Karen - and the parent company for whom they work, Gotham Golf Partners - have not just polished and restored Sapphire to its original luster, they've even added some sparkling new facets.
Another reason word hasn't gotten out might be that the Martells are simply too polite and modest for chest-thumping self-promotion.
Natives of Wisconsin, they admit to being in love with the place, however. "We thought autumns in Wisconsin were amazing," says Karen, "but the ones here are literally too beautiful for words. I've never seen so many different colors.
"There's just one more hole your humble correspondent needs to tell you about. And no it's not the 19th, although Karen has done a marvelous job with that, as well.
This one's the big hole you'll feel inside of you when it comes time to depart.