Best golf courses near Knoxville, TN

Holston Hills is a club that ultimately benefitted from being on the "wrong" side of town for many of its years. Because of that, the membership never had the money to go in for the kind of major modernization of its 1927 Donald Ross-designed course that so many other clubs of the era endured, few for the better. The result is that the Ross fundamentals are well-preserved, with a splendid routing that fans out in opposing directions from the clubhouse perch, holes that work up and over robust but never severe land movements (see the hogback par-4 second fairway), stellar cross-bunkering that one day might impact shot selection and the next day not, and greens that showcase lovely, original internal contours. The par 5s alternate between gettable and gotcha (the 517-yard seventh is one of Ross's most original half-par holes), the lovely bunkering of the short par-4 sixth elevates it to a must-see hole, and the run of 14, 15 and 16 that includes a long par 3 into a glen with a wickedly canted green, a mid-length down and up par 4 over a string of cops mounds and a drivable uphill par 4 to a tabletop green is one of the most ecclectic trio of holes in the state.