When you show up to play Sweetens Cove Golf Club for the first time, there are several things that you will not find. You will not find a clubhouse. You will not find a restroom. You won’t actually find a parking lot, just an area of grass and dirt where golfing customers find a spot to park. You will not find any practice facilities. You will not even find 18 holes on the golf course.
What you will find though, are nine of the most interesting golf holes and green complexes that you have probably ever played. It took Rob Collins and his partner Tad King a few years to self-build this golfing gem a few miles west of Chattanooga, Tennessee but the end result is quite stunning. The greens are similar in size to the double greens you will find at the Old Course of St. Andrews although they are much more undulated. Once on the green, I loved the strategy of trying to determine the proper line to strike the putt. A bigger challenge awaits you if you miss a green. Trying to determine the type of shot to hit, not necessarily to get your ball close to the hole, but just to get it to stop on the proper quadrant of the green (if not just to get your shot to stay on the green itself) can be either fun or frustrating.
The course, and particularly the greens, is in wonderful condition. When trying to classify it or to put it into a category of something that I have previously played, I would have to say that it is a little bit of Mike Strantz and a little bit of Coore and Crenshaw’s Bandon Trails. The greens are a compilation of Mike Strantz, C. B. Macdonald, Alister MacKenzie and Donald Ross all rolled into one. I guess you would have to say they are 100% Rob Collins.
This entire operation is very understated but if it was an 18 hole design with a decent clubhouse and some practice facilities, it would be talked about as one of the most outstanding and interesting courses in America. For now, Sweetens Cove has to settle for Golfweek’s ranking as the 50th best modern course in the United States and the number one public course in the state of Tennessee. Don’t expect much when you arrive. You will not find someone at a bag drop to greet you, but you will have the Sweetens Cove mascot dog, “Birdie” to welcome you to a golf experience you will not soon forget.
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