The Volunteer State proves that nine holes can be enough with Sweetens Cove and the Course at Sewanee.
Golfweek’s Best is willing to buck tradition when it comes to the top public-access layouts in Tennessee, as two of the three highest ranked layouts are just nine holes.
Sweetens Cove, which has built a loyal following online and on its untraditional tee sheet, comes in at No. 1. Located about halfway between Nashville and Atlanta in tiny South Pittsburg, the design by the firm of King-Collins offers fresh twists on classic architectural features across its nine holes. It has created massive interest in a flat floodplain between mountains, proving that golfers are more than willing to travel to find a good time.
Likewise, the Gil Hanse-redesigned Course at Sewanee is a can’t miss in Tennessee despite being just nine holes. Perched atop a mountain at the University of the South, several holes feature long views over a valley while various tees allow the nine holes to play entirely differently on subsequent loops. Sewanee comes in at No. 3 on Golfweek’s Best 2022 public-access list for Tennessee.
Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960 (c): Classic course, built before 1960
Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.
Rob Collins and design partner Tad King break the glass ceiling with Landmand Golf Club in Nebraska.
Big and bold – good words to live by. Interesting, different, unlikely. All attributes ascribed to artists, authors, chefs, actors … really anyone who can grab attention and hold it.
Even golf course architects.
Rob Collins initially grabbed attention for his big and bold design at Sweetens Cove Golf Club which opened in 2015 in remote Tennessee. A nine-holer built on a flat floodplain amidst the Appalachian Mountains, Sweetens Cove had to grab attention and hold it – a run-of-the-mill design atop the previous course named Sequatchie Valley on the same damp site might have drawn flies, but not many golfers.
Instead, Collins and his design partner, Tad King, moved some 300,000 cubic yards of dirt to erect what has become Tennessee’s No. 1-ranked public-access course in Golfweek’s Best ratings. Big greens, bold slopes – there are those words again, and at Sweetens Cove, those concepts have drawn a loyal following of golfers who will drive to the middle of nowhere to experience something different and entirely interesting.
“I always did believe there was some form of greatness to be achieved out there, and that it could be very popular,” Collins said of Sweetens Cove, the first course built by his and King’s then-new golf architecture firm, King-Collins. “It was so different and so unique and so much fun, the early adopters of the place gave us so much enthusiasm and belief in what we had done. It was like a religious experience for a lot of people.”
Now comes the next step in big and bold for King-Collins, on a completely different landscape and scale – and after waiting longer than either could have imagined after Sweetens Cove’s ascent into the top 100 modern golf courses in the U.S.
The public-access Landmand Golf Club in eastern Nebraska, King-Collins’ first original 18-hole layout, opens for regular play September 3 on what Collins describes as simply crazy terrain for golf. Built atop and around bluffs and dunes near the village of Homer in the Loess Hills – geologic terrain left in the wake of retreating glaciers during the last Ice Age – Landmand presented unique challenges and opportunities in a wide-open and extreme landscape with views for miles. Collins said he and King went all-out in trying to take advantage of everything the site, including its 150 feet of elevation changes, offered.
An all-timer today @LandmandG – it’s impossible to express the amount of gratitude that Tad & I feel toward @wanders1140 & his great family for giving us this opportunity. It was a thrill from start to finish playing shots into features that so many labored over. pic.twitter.com/cujUBk2pQk
“You had to just put the pedal down and go for it,” Collins said of his approach to Landmand. “The first time you see it, the scale is just going to blow your mind. Every time I go out there, I laugh about it. Things that are gigantic in reality just shrink in this landscape.”
On such a vast playing field – and because of the region’s frequent gusty winds – Collins said his team was inspired to install massive fairways, sometimes with one fairway corridor serving two holes. None of the fairways are less than 80 yards wide, several single fairways top out at more than 100 yards wide and the connecting fairways are stretched beyond 150 yards.
“A 60- or 70-yard-wide fairway just doesn’t cut it out there because it shrinks visually in the scale of that landscape,” Collins said. “And so, a 60-yard fairway would look 30 yards wide. You hit a ball out there and walk down into the fairway, you’re like, ‘My God, it’s gigantic, there’s no way I could have missed this fairway.’ You need features that are just that big out there.”
The green for the short par-4 17th as the grass grows in at Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska (Courtesy of Landmand Golf Club)
The greens at Landmand are similarly huge. Average greens at most U.S. courses are between 5,000 and 7,000 square feet – purely for example, Augusta National Golf Club’s greens average just over 6,400 square feet, while those at Pebble Beach Golf Links are tiny at about 3,500 square feet. At Landmand, King-Collins constructed putting surfaces that frequently blow past 20,000 square feet.
As a comparison for King-Collins fans, Collins said he receives frequent comments on the size of the fourth green at Sweetens Cove, an Alps-inspired putting surface stretching some 80 yards front to back. At Landmand, the fourth green from Sweetens would be only the fifth-largest putting surface.
Collins cites the par-3 fifth at Landmand as a great example of a large green fitting a big landscape. The approach from the back tee is some 240 yards across a chasm to a putting surface of more than 25,000 square feet.
“You look at it, and yeah it seems big, but then you get on it and realize it’s huge,” Collins said. “It has to be to fit. Standing on the tee, even a 12,000-square-foot green on top of that ridge would look stupid. It would look like a pimple on the ass of an elephant. It would look like we shied away from the landscape. We had to build features that embraced that boldness.”
It’s all part of the width and size serving strategy. Players shouldn’t just whack away and expect an easy next shot from a wide, forgiving fairway, especially if the wind blows. There’s skill to discerning the best route to any hole, Collins said, and golfers better think before they swing.
“Every shot on every golf course we ever do, we want to have a meaning behind it,” he said. “We don’t want any hole to take a shot off. We always want the golfer engaged. That may mean hazard placement, or in a lot of cases at a place like Landmand, it’s a big contour. … Each hole at Landmand was built to ask varying versions of some type of questions, and a lot of that is through contour.”
Landmand, Te Arai, among others have golf architecture fans champing at the bit for 2022 to arrive.
After a decade of course closings dominating the headlines starting with the economic downturn in 2008, architects have been busier moving earth over the past several years. Coast to coast as well as abroad, several top-tier layouts have come online from noted architects – think Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, even Tiger Woods.
This new year promises more of the same, with the following five new courses being among those I can’t wait to see in 2022.
In keeping with recent development trends, these courses aren’t necessarily close to major population centers. Only one of them – the East Course at PGA Frisco – is near a big city, situated as it is on the northern outskirts of Dallas. The other four on this list? You’ll need planes, trains, automobiles or maybe a boat, and definitely a passport.
Doesn’t matter. Great golf is worth any travel. So in no particular order, here are five new courses I want to sink my nubby spikes into during 2022.
Sweetens Cove headlines the list of Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2020: Tennessee.
Don’t expect to play a traditional 18 holes at either of the best two public-access golf courses in Tennessee – they’re both nine-holers.
That in no way means Sweetens Cove or The Course at Sewanee should be missed by any golfers who find themselves about a two-hour drive south of Nashville.
Golfweek ranks courses by compiling the average ratings – on a points basis of 1 to 10 – of its more than 750 raters to create several industry-leading lists of courses. That includes the popular Best Courses You Can Play list for courses that allow non-member tee times. These generally are defined as courses accessible to resort guests or regular daily-fee players.
Sweetens Cove in South Pittsburg is No. 1 on the Best Courses You Can Play list in the Volunteer State, and it also is No. 60 on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for all tracks built in or after 1960 in the United States – not too shabby for a course with no back nine.
Sweetens Cove in Tennessee (Courtesy of Sweetens Cove)
Designed by King-Collins Golf Course Design and opened in 2014, Sweetens Cove has since had investments come in from a group that includes celebrities and athletes such as Andy Roddick and Peyton Manning. Built on the site of another nine-holer, the layout has drawn widespread attention as a social-media darling in recent years for offering various all-day packages and by creating a fun, welcoming vibe with none of the over-the-top accoutrements found at many courses on Golfweek’s Best lists. The clubhouse is a shed, the parking lot is tiny and the golf is a riot. And it’s all about the course.
Rob Collins and business partner Tad King wanted something different – the course had to stand out to attract business to the remote flood plain on which it sits. But they also wanted their course to be grounded in tradition, and they came up with a modernist take on traditional holes. Take a Biarritz green and turn it almost sideways? Why not? Build a 90-yard-deep Himalayas-style green full of humps and bumps? Go ahead, give it a try.
It definitely takes a few loops around the nine holes to appreciate the vast range and scale of creativity that turned a less-than-perfect piece of land into one of the most-talked-about courses of the past decade. And Sweetens Cove is more than happy to accommodate with its welcome, do-as-you-please vibe.
The Course at Sewanee in Tennessee (Courtesy of the Course at Sewanee)
The Course at Sewanee, No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list in Tennessee, is just a 30-minute drive north of Sweetens Cove through the Appalachian Mountains. Operated by the University of the South, an Episcopal college commonly known as Sewanee, this nine-holer sits at a higher elevation than Sweetens Cove and offers several views across a lush valley. The original layout was built by a priest, a football team and a pack of mules in 1915, and architects Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner redesigned it for a 2013 reopening.
Sewanee features plenty of width and naturalistic bunkers, while multiple tee boxes allow the rolling layout to play very differently for second loops. Hanse has said he and Wagner didn’t want to completely tear apart a course that was a favored amenity at the college, so they worked to enhance the layout without necessarily abandoning its palpable sense of timelessness.
The Course at Sewanee in Tennessee (Courtesy of the Course at Sewanee)
The rest of the Best Courses You Can Play in Tennessee return to 18-hole layouts. Stonehenge in Fairfield Glade is No. 3 on that list, followed by No. 4 Mirimichi in Millington and No. 5 Hermitage Golf Course’s President’s Reserve in Old Hickory.
The private side of golf is also strong in Tennessee, as reflected in Golfweek’s Best list for non-public access layouts. The Honors Course in Ooltewah – designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1983 – is No. 1 on the private list for the state and also is No. 23 on Golfweek’s Best Modern list for the entire United States.
Holston Hills in Knoxville is No. 2 on Tennessee’s private list and is No. 100 on Golfweek’s Best list for Classic Courses built before 1960 in the United States. Next up is No. 3 Golf Club of Tennessee in Kingston Springs, followed by No. 4 Spring Creek Ranch in Collierville and No. 5 Black Creek Club in Chattanooga.
Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Tennessee
1. Sweetens Cove
South Pittsburg (No. 60 m)
2. Course at Sewanee
Sewanee (m)
3. Stonehenge
Fairfield Glade (m)
4. Mirimichi
Millington (m)
5. *Hermitage (President’s Reserve)
Old Hickory (m)
*New to the list in 2020 (m): modern
(c): classic
Golfweek’s Best Private Courses 2020 in Tennessee
1. Honors Course
Ooltewah (No. 23 m)
2. Holston Hills
Knoxville (No. 100 c)
3. GC of Tennessee
Kingston Springs (m)
4. Spring Creek Ranch
Collierville (m)
5. *Black Creek Club
Chattanooga (m)
Golfweek’s Best 2020: Top 30 Campus Courses
The rankings below reflect where these courses fall among the top 30 Campus Courses in the United States.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in its state, or nationally, to produce the final rankings.
Peyton Manning is a partner in a 9-hole public course in southeast Tennessee that has become a cult favorite and ranked in Golfweek’s Best.
The thing about a truly great sports rivalry is that it makes you pick sides. No one roots for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox or the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.
In golf, during their heyday, you were either an Arnie guy or a Jack guy. And that’s perhaps the most appealing part of The Match II: Are you for Tiger or Phil? Both have loyal followers. But for many, the rooting interest is muddied this go-round by the addition of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Manning is in many ways the Phil Mickelson of the NFL, who must stay up late at night wondering how many Super Bowl rings he might have if not for Brady (and his New England Patriots) standing in his way. Mickelson and Manning would seem to be a natural partnership, but the organizers thought otherwise and paired Manning with Woods. It may make for some strange bedfellows if you’re a Tiger guy but also a Brady lover, or Mickelson and Manning supporter. There are few more polarizing athletes than this foursome.
10 day countdown has begun. Tune in to TNT at 3 p.m. ET next Sunday, May 24th, to watch Peyton and I win. pic.twitter.com/KFYObvBguD
How to break the tie? I’m basing my rooting interest during Sunday’s match on the simple fact that Manning is the more legit golf guy in my book. Which is not to say that Brady, who lives off The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, where he is a member and recently joined Seminole Golf Club after signing on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and has competed in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, lacks street cred in the golf community. Manning isn’t lacking in having memberships at some posh private clubs either: Castle Pines and Cherry Hills in Colorado; The Honors Club in Tennessee; and a little old club in Georgia you may have heard of, Augusta National. But it is his ownership stake in Sweetens Cove in South Pittsburg, Tennessee — population 3,000 — that sways my allegiance.
Sweetens Cove, a quirky, strategic, nine-hole course is arguably golf’s greatest success story of the last decade. Since opening in 2015, it has climbed to No. 49 on Golfweek’s Best Modern List and you can read about it here. As for Manning’s ties to the place, architect Rob Collins of King-Collins Design & Golf Construction, tells it best. He recalls how when Sweetens Cove first opened, he and Patrick Boyd, the original course general manager, always would say the one investor they’d really love to get on board is Manning. “No one better to be involved in a golf enterprise in the state of Tennessee,” Collins said. “We’d laugh and say, ‘Maybe one day, who knows? How cool would that be?’ ”
Fast-forward to Oct. 21, 2018. By that time, Collins had met and partnered with Mark Rivers, a real estate developer, who put together a group of partners that included Tom Nolan, then of Polo Golf and now CEO of Kendra Scott, and tennis Hall of Famer Andy Roddick. Rivers suggested dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Chattanooga so Collins could meet Nolan, the newest partner.
Arriving a few minutes early, Collins waited at the bar with Rivers and his back to the door.
“Mark said, ‘They’re here.’ I thought, They? Did Andy come to? I turn around and Peyton is walking towards me and sticks out his hand and says, ‘Hey, I’m Peyton Manning’ and I said, ‘Hey, I’m Rob Collins.’ Over my shoulder, Mark says, “And there’s your fifth partner.’ ”
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Collins played with Manning during his first trip around Sweetens Cove, which has become a cult favorite and social media darling, and Manning has been back often, including on May 23, 2019, when he took a video of himself playing the eighth hole and declared what should be a slogan printed on a T-shirt: “Carrying my bag, playing nine holes, God bless America.”
“It’s got great character to it,” Manning says of Sweetens Cove. “Love The Shed. You can drop your money in a bucket. It’s just short and sweet. You’ve got to play it and then everybody understands.”
Even now, Collins marvels at his good fortune that Manning loves the game of golf and the state of Tennessee enough to invest in his and original partner Tad King’s little engine that could. Collins laughs as he recounts the tale before adding, “How the hell did this even happen, you know?”
“It turns out that Tom (Nolan) called Brad Faxon to see if he knew Peyton,” Collins said. “He didn’t, But Brad said, ‘I know Tom Brady and I’ll call him.’ Brad called Brady and then Brady called Manning. Isn’t that crazy?”
Does that mean the Manning partnership is all Brady’s doing? Should Collins really be rooting for Brady and Mickelson on Sunday?
“We’re very grateful to Tom for making that phone call, but I’m a total homer for Peyton,” Collins said.
