Golfweek’s experts have ranked the Top 200 courses built since 1960, such as Bandon Dunes, Whistling Straits and more.
Want to play the great modern golf courses in the U.S.? From Hawaii to Boston, we have you covered. So welcome to the Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of the Top 200 Modern Courses built in or after 1960 in the United States.
The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings. The top handful of courses in the world have an average rating of above 9, while many excellent layouts fall into the high-6 to the 8 range.
To ensure these lists are up-to-date, Golfweek’s Best in recent years has altered how the individual ratings are compiled into the rankings. Only ratings from rounds played in the past 10 years are included in the compilations. This helps ensure that any course in the rankings still measures up.
Courses also must have a minimum of 25 votes to qualify for the Top 200 Modern or the Top 200 Classic. Other Golfweek’s Best lists, such as Best Courses You Can Play or Best Private, do not require as many votes. This makes it possible that a course can show up on other lists but not on the premium Top 200 lists.
There’s one course of particular note this year. Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska, debuts the highest of the courses new to this list, climbing into a tie for 26th. Designed by Tad King and Rob Collins, Landmand opened in 2022. It and the Sheep Ranch at Bandon Dunes are the only courses to have opened since 2020 to rank among the top 200.
Each course is listed with its average rating next to the name, then the location, the year it opened and the designers. The list notes in parenthesis next to the name of each course where that course ranked in 2022.
After the designers are several designations that note what type of facility it is:
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.
SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tennessee – There’s not much to say about Sweetens Cove Golf Club that hasn’t already been said. Tucked just off a highway in the heart of rolling Tennessee hills, the course with an ownership group that includes Peyton Manning, Andy Roddick, PGA Tour vet Keith Mitchell and others is arguably golf’s greatest success story of the last decade.
What makes it so special? The Rob Collins layout is one that takes your breath away, from the moment you step to the first tee. But the on-site vibe — no beverage or food service, no dress code, unlimited play — is one that rekindles any love lost on stuffy corporate outings.
General manager Matt Adamski is the perfect representative for Sweetens Cove. Part golf addict, part trash talker, Adamski once played 254 holes here in a single day. That’d be like Joey Chestnut buying a hot dog cart, working it through a summer season and then eating every leftover before closing up for the winter.
Adamski starts each day with a morning chat for the group on hand before sending them on their way. It’s a funny, irreverent salvo, intended to put the players at ease and get them into the right mindset. He offers suggestions for money-game loops, and mentions what other groups have done in the past that he’s found interesting.
Adamski recently opened up to Golfweek on what he loves about coming to work each day, how he thinks Sweetens’ tee time system might cause sweeping changes in the industry and what’s next for the golf world’s darling.
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.”
Ambience. Simply put, nothing matters more when debating the merits of various 19th holes around the United States.
Ambience.
Simply put, nothing matters more when debating the merits of various 19th holes around the United States. So say Golfweek’s Best 800-plus raters who were polled to determine the top 10 golf course bars and restaurants. More than 400 votes were cast to establish this list.
Views are important, but not everything. Same goes for the food. The drinks menu matters, of course. Service is key. But none of these alone is enough to earn a place on Golfweek’s Best initial list of top 19th holes that includes three private clubs and, perhaps more importantly, seven spots where anyone can grab a seat.
The Tap Room at Pebble Beach Resort in California (Courtesy of Pebble Beach)
Instead, it’s all about the vibe. A chance to relax, just hang out. Enjoy a sip, the conversation, the golf and the heritage. It can be difficult to describe what makes one space a better hangout than others, but you know it when you see it. And then you never want to leave.
Check out Golfweek’s Best ranking of Top 10 19th holes. And by that,
we mean not just on this website. Go see for yourself.
“I enjoy having fun. I enjoy laughing. I enjoy interacting with people.”
HOUSTON — Peyton Manning was holding court, much like he did for so many Sundays during an incredible National Football League career that spanned 18 seasons and included Super Bowls for two different franchises.
And although he wasn’t the only celebrity at a private event held Wednesday at Truth BBQ, just a few miles from Memorial Park — the site of this week’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open — he was certainly the biggest. PGA Tour star Keith Mitchell and Manning’s former teammate Owen Daniels were among the others floating around the room, but Manning was undeniably the center of attention.
And while he rises up in these scenarios, Manning is nothing if not gracious, even starting his appearance by filling out a name tag and placing it on his lapel, as if those who showed up might not pick him out of the crowd.
Manning’s life after football has included plenty of golf — he’s a member at Augusta National among other courses — and his appearance on The Match with Steph Curry was a fun showcase for his golf talents.
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And now, Manning, Mitchell, tennis star Andy Roddick, Jim Nantz and a number of other partners are riding a high as the group’s nine-hole Sweetens Cove has emerged as one of the golf world’s darlings, often considered a must-play for those in the area. The group started distilling bourbon and under the direction of CEO Mark Rivers — who was also on hand Wednesday — the group hopes to expand into multiple markets.
The partners brought on Tennessee native Marianne Eaves to serve as master blender. Known as Kentucky’s first female master distiller since Prohibition, Eaves spent time at Castle & Key and Brown-Forman and was named one of America’s Top 40 under 40 Tastemakers by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
Golfweek caught up with Manning during the crowded event to talk about golf, bourbon, football and his memories of Houston, all over a sip of the spirit he’s hoping will become a household name.
Q: You said earlier you’re a scratch beer drinker and a 14-handicap bourbon drinker. What’s this taste like to you?
Manning: I’m still probably not qualified to give you the proper terminology. I just really like the story that goes with it. Just start with the golf course. It’s kind of hard to find, hard to get to, but when you get to it, it’s worth the time and the effort. They think that’s kind of the same with this. It’s not super accessible.
But when you go through the effort to find it and you get it, it’s like, wow, it’s really special. So I just like that. Obviously, Tennessee’s important to me and so you know anytime I’m in the state of Tennessee, I have this peaceful, easy feeling — not to quote The Eagles — and so when I think about Sweetens Cove, I see the bottle, you know, I see ‘volunteer to share,’ I’ve got good memories of my time in Tennessee and the people there.
And now that I’m in this second chapter, what I miss the most about playing football is my teammates, being on that team. And so now I find myself on different teams and this is a fun Sweetens Cove team to be a part of.
Q: So why was Texas an important market for you guys? And how has that gone for you?
Manning: Yeah, I obviously just think you probably know the answer is that Texas is just critical in this space if you’re gonna, you know, gonna kind of become serious about it and we weren’t sure how this was gonna go.
You know, this started out as a kind of a fun project with the golf course, because of this tradition, that we witnessed in front of us, that people were doing a shot of whiskey before they hit their first shot. Leaving the bottle for the group behind it — a very kind of organic, unforced tradition.
Like, maybe we should start our own (bourbon) — still kind of fun. And then all of a sudden we hire Marianne, who’s from the area from the Chattanooga area, once again an authentic connection, maybe this can be real, you know I was telling somebody, football critics are hard, but bourbon critics are downright tough.
I don’t hate the term ‘celebrities spirit,’ but I don’t think that’s what this is. It’s Marianne’s. But it pains (critics) to sort of have to give a good review to us because they don’t think you’re putting any time and effort behind it and so but when they do give you a good review, you’re like, wow, maybe the people maybe people like it.
Peyton Manning talks about bourbon, the golf course that’s become the darling of the golf world, and his time in Houston. (Contributed photo by Sammie Theige)
Q: In talking to Keith Mitchell, these guys on Tour are ambassadors for a lot of products, and believe it or not, you’ve had an endorsement or two in your day. (Manning smiles.) So Keith turns to me and goes, ‘Yeah, I’m not here for any of that (expletive). I’m here because this is fun. This is really fun. We have a golf course that’s fun and playable and a bourbon that tastes great.’ What’s it like to see athletes and other people in this space just genuinely excited about something and not doing it because they have to?
Manning: Well, I think it’s great, especially, you know, during these times when you weren’t allowed to be together and you couldn’t have any fun in this kind of setting. So I think that’s it speaks to how all this got started.
We launched during the middle of COVID in April of 2020. I wouldn’t recommend launching during a pandemic, but we did it and here we are. And so, you know, I think anytime we have these get-togethers — we’ve been down in New Orleans, Denver, Indianapolis, Dallas and now Houston; I have a little better attendance than Andy, but you don’t have to put that — I love being together. I love being with people. Like you said, there’s smiling and having fun and seeing they genuinely like it. I mean, I can kind of tell when there’s somebody’s now who really thinks it tastes good and they’re not just saying it because I’m there.
Q: Word is that Jim Nantz occasionally drives around and does play-by-play when folks are on the tee boxes at Sweetens Cove. Did you ever think it would become something like this? You’re a golf guy. You love it. But to think of Jim Nantz calling golf shots at your golf course. Did you see this?
Manning: No. Never. I mean never. And to hear Rob Collins (principal designer at King-Collins Golf Design), who built the course, talk about Sweetens Cove before we got involved in it and where it’s gone, that’s fun.
I mean, you know, that Jim Nantz is narrating my friend Case’s 7-iron or 8-iron on No. 9 — it’s like you’re making it up, right? You’re making it up. And only Nantz can do it: ‘There’s a little breeze coming out of the east. What have you got there, Nick? I think he’s got a seven.’
I mean, the videos are incredible. Jim does it because he loves it. That was cool and Jim’s a passionate, romantic guy. He loves the little things and he loves the story, too. So that’s a fun connection to him.
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Q: Did you think you’d have this much fun in retirement? The TV, the golf course, the bourbon. Look at you and Eli on Monday nights, having fun. It’s funny. I mean, except when you had Josh Allen on and jinxed him, everything else seems great. Did you think it would be this much fun?
Manning: No, I agree. It’s been so much fun. I enjoy having fun. I enjoy laughing. I enjoy interacting with people. That’s why I played team sports, you know, and I gravitated toward team sports and you know, it’s the interaction with the people and so this has been a really fun team to be a part of and that’s just the word you know people are excited about it.
They’re having fun. We’re everybody’s kind of curious where it’s gonna go, you know, we’re excited about it. Everybody’s, you know, very passionate about it.
Q: We’re here for the Houston Open. Give us some Houston memories. What do you think about when you come to this town?
Manning: I’ve got a buddy who I went to high school with who is out in the crowd here — he lives in Houston — and I remember coming to a Houston-Dodgers game. Mike Scott pitched. Fernando (Valenzuela) was pitching. (Pedro) Guerrero was playing. We drove over, and I went to AstroWorld.
My dad (Archie) played for the Oilers. I was six, but we didn’t move here. We stayed in New Orleans. Tuesday’s kind of your universal off-day, so on Monday after practice he would catch a $37 Southwest flight and come home to have dinner with us Monday night. He would take us to school on Tuesday and then come back over here.
We got to come over, too, and I got to be a ball boy for a game here — a Steelers game — and I got to serve Gatorade to the team. So those are my early memories of Houston.
Then when realignment happened, when the Texans came into the league, we were somewhat fortunate, we were beneficiaries that we got out of this brutal division with the Patriots, Dolphins, Bills and Jets, who all were good back then. Back then, they all made the playoffs — like three of them made it in one year. And so we got realigned to the AFC South and I got to come down and play Houston, which, look, when you’re a new franchise, there’s going to be growing pains.
But in 2002, I remember coming down here and it was fun because all my New Orleans friends came up here for this game. Mr. McNair was a great, great man. Somebody that I got to know so I have fond memories of Houston. And my dad has fond memories playing for the Oilers.
Former NFL star Owen Daniels and his wife Angela talk with Peyton Manning at a Sweetens Cove party in Houston. (Contributed photo by Sammie Theige)
Q: Speaking of Owen Daniels — I talked to him out there, and he tells me he just put a huge simulator in his garage. His wife told me he goes out there every day to hit balls. Where are you at with this? Are you playing a lot? And by the way, he says he hasn’t played Sweetens yet. You need to get him out there.
Manning: I know I do. I mean, a lot of people want to go play. I’m all for guys like Owen going to play there.
In Denver, I played in two January playoff games over 65 degrees. They keep the pins in year-round there. I’d rather be outside playing, you know, with some buddies — but my weekend golf is gone. I’m coaching kids sports and so that’s over. So if I don’t get out on a Wednesday, I’m probably not getting out there in the week, but I still love playing.
I love organizing a golf trip. I love the itinerary. I’m a big voice memo guy. I’m just sort of sending a 14-minute voice memo with the whole itinerary.
From cool golf gear to stylish clothing to cool gadgets and great bourbon, there is something here for every golf-loving Dad.
Father’s Day and golf have become synonymous because so many dads love to play and, traditionally, the final round of the U.S. Open is contested on Father’s Day Sunday (June 20). This year, with the West Coast time advantage as the tournament is played at the South Course at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, many dads have plenty of time to get in 18 holes in the morning before settling in to watch the game’s best players tackle one of the most beautiful and challenging venues in golf.
If you are struggling for ideas about what to get a golf-loving father this year, Golfweek has you covered. Check out the cool gear and accessories in the 2021 Father’s Day Gift Guide.
We occasionally recommend interesting products, services, and gaming opportunities. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. Golfweek operates independently, though, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
Ranking the top public golf courses you can play in every state, as judged by Golfweek’s nationwide group of experts.
Not a member somewhere? Not a problem.
With this list of Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play, we present the best public-access courses in each state, as judged by our nationwide network of raters.
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. Each course is then ranked against other courses in its state to produce the final rankings.
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.
KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. (For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S.). * indicates new or returning to the rankings.
(Pictured atop this story is Sweetens Cove in Tennessee.)
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 and his partners hope to stake a claim as Tennessee’s signature premium bourbon, building off their successful golf course.
Andy Roddick has a bottle-and-a half of Sweetens Cove Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey left in his pantry.
The former world No. 1 tennis player and partner in the new premium spirit brand often fields requests from friends looking to get a bottle.
“Sure,” Roddick tells them. “Just as soon as I can.”
It might be a tall order. The third of five batches will hit retail shelves next week, but Sweetens Cove Spirits CEO Mark Rivers estimates the 14,000 bottles in its inaugural release will be sold out by October.
With a limited release strategy, Sweetens Cove’s partners — including Tennessee Vols and NFL legend Peyton Manning — hope to stake a claim as Tennessee’s signature premium bourbon, rather than a celebrity brand.
“(Roddick and Manning) really want to put their shoulders behind the process and the product and the business more than put their faces in front of it,” Rivers said.
From golf course to bourbon
The Sweetens Cove story began with a treasure hunt, Roddick and Rivers said in an interview with Knox News, when they discovered and purchased Sweetens Cove Golf Club, a nine-hole golf course in South Pittsburg, just west of Chattanooga, in May 2019.
Manning joined the ownership team of the golf club, which was in need of long-term investment and, among other things, indoor plumbing.
The new owners have also added “the heckle deck,” an observation area at the par-3 9th green; a covered pavilion and firepit for events; The Honey Barrel, a 20,000-square-foot Himalayan-style putting green with lighting for evening events; and general improvements like new irrigation, flood control and landscaping.
The “heckledeck” overlooks the 9th green at Sweetens Cove. (Photo courtesy Sweetens Cove)
But they drew on the history of the club for the connection when it came to the new line of spirits.
“The course had a great ritual that preceded us, where golf guests would take a shot of whiskey on the first tee, before their first golf swing,” Manning said in an email to Knox News. “It became fundamental to the experience. People would bring a bottle, leave a bottle, share a bottle. All of us were so struck by that unique legend and so we said, ‘We need our own whiskey’ and the journey to create Sweetens Cove Spirits was born then and there.”
After more treasure hunting, Rivers discovered 100 barrels of 13-year-aged Tennessee bourbon available for purchase.
“We teased that it was being held hostage in a warehouse in Kentucky, and the first thing we did was buy it and the second thing we did was bring it back to Tennessee,” Rivers said.
The Sweetens Cove partners brought on Marianne Eaves, a Tennessee native, to serve as master blender to the brand, which is blended in Columbia, Tennessee.
Sweetens Cove Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey owners include Tom Nolan, from left, Andy Roddick, Rob Collins, Mark Rivers and Peyton Manning. The owners who are not pictured are Skip Bronson and Drew Holcomb. SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Known as Kentucky’s first female master distiller since Prohibition, Eaves spent time at Castle & Key and Brown-Forman and was named one of America’s Top 40 under 40 Tastemakers by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
Rather than embrace the traditional role of a blender — to make batch after batch of a product taste the same year after year — the Sweetens Cove team gave Eaves more creative license to craft five distinct blends under the same label and distinguished only by proof.
“Basically, they were like you are the artist and these are the different colors on your palette and you’re here to create something that you believe is beautiful and delicious,” Eaves said.
Eaves initially spent at least 15 minutes nosing, tasting and writing extensive notes on each of the 100 barrels.
“(It’s) very rare to have someone with her skill and stature to do that deep dive of craftsmanship,” Manning said. “And so far, the reviews have really met our expectations.”
Across the barrels, Eaves found traditional oaky flavors, but also burnt marshmallow, tropical fruit, floral, herbal, black pepper and leather notes.
“(It was) fun to pull in different proportions of these different flavor characteristics to make these five unique batches,” Eaves said. “Overall I hope that people will find that it’s really approachable and then you get this really wonderful, creamy, smooth mouthfeel, but from batch to batch you’re going to get different flavors.”
Of the 100, she reserved four for single- barrel release later this year. The 14-year limited release 375-milliliter bottles will retail for $125.
‘We’ll start to look at some other markets in 2021’
Eaves will be involved in the barrel selection for the second and third releases, which will hit Tennessee shelves in 2021.
“We’ll go very slowly, very methodically, quality over speed, but we will start to ramp up the production volume and we’ll start to look at some other markets in 2021,” Rivers said.
When in stock, Knoxville fans of the brand can find Sweetens Cove bourbon at Green Meadow Wine and Spirits, Good Times Wine and Spirits and Bob’s Package Store.
Manning, a self-described “whiskey rookie,” said he’s enjoyed learning more about the process and was thrilled to back a Tennessee product. He enjoys his Sweetens Cove with an ice cube or two.
The bourbon is on the menu at Manning’s one-of-a-kind “watering hole” Saloon 16, which opened in August inside the new Graduate Hotel in Knoxville.
Seeing an opening in the Tennessee whiskey market
Rivers realized there was an opportunity in the Tennessee whiskey market after visiting a well-known Nashville bar about 18 months ago. The extensive spirits menu featured four pages of Kentucky bourbons. There were only six Tennessee bourbons listed.
“We believe 100% there is an opening to be the flagship premium Tennessee bourbon,” Rivers said. “Whiskey, bourbon from Tennessee has a great history and a great legacy and a long story of terrific craftsmanship, often overwhelmed by Kentucky’s story.”
More than 6.3 million visitors participated in the Tennessee Whiskey Trail in 2018.
Created by the Tennessee Distillers Guild, the trail is comprised of 26 distilleries across the state including George Dickel Distillery, Prichard’s Distillery, Corsair Artisan Distillery, Heaven’s Door, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery and Uncle Nearest.
There are plenty of celebrity-backed spirits on the market, but Roddick said the brand has tried to focus on the quality of the product rather than rolling out marketing featuring famous faces.
“I enjoy the process of being involved in the day-to-day as opposed to just showing up and spouting off taglines and then leaving,” said Roddick.
Email Knoxville News Sentinel business reporter Brenna McDermott at brenna.mcdermott@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @_BrennaMcD.
