Sweetens Cove Golf Club is a nine-hole course that measures out at about 3,300 yards in Tennessee’s Sequatchie Valley just north of the Alabama and Georgia borders. Rob Collins, a Tennessee local who had been working to gain a footing in the golf course design business, worked with his design partner Tad King beginning in 2011 to renovate and redesign a new course from the preexisting Sequatchie Valley Golf and Country Club, a substandard course on bad land. King and Collins created something entirely new, digging and moving dirt around the 135-acre property to impose their vision of golf strategy and width playing up to some dramatic greens.
The course, with its shoestring budget and spartan amenities, opened in 2014 and immediately fell on hard financial times. Collins would eventually become an owner-operator, further investing his time into a property that would face several dire financial straits that were overcome by a series of miracles and small, last-minute investments. The course, in part due to its own merits and the miracle of its existence in that location, achieved a level of cult popularity among the golf internet, such as the founder of this website, No Laying Up, and eventually The New York Times. This media attention brought more acclaim, popularity, and financial stability. In May 2019, an investment group that included Andy Roddick and Peyton Manning, brought further stability to the little nine-holer that had been to hell and back for nearly a decade. A recent investment from Reef Capital is planned to transform Sweetens in the next few years into something more than spartan – a destination with lodging, a nine-hole short course, and other activities across the property.
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Take Note…
Times-less. Sweetens does have a membership with some perks, but it is open to the public. After the explosion in interest, it takes some effort to secure a date there. Pace of play became a nightmare after interest spiked, and they instituted their Daily Pass format with a morning shotgun and unlimited play for those passholders. It’s likely the best way to experience a nine-holer that emphasizes options and a variety of ways to play each hole. Dash around until sunset playing as much as you can, or give it up when you have had your fill. It’s not like landing Taylor Swift tickets, but you have to be on top of things to get a daily pass.
Double vision. The daily pass is part of the stew of uniqueness here, and so too are multiple pins on each green. It was not that way for the first few years after Collins opened his vision of the place, but became daily practice after they tried it for Zac Blair’s The Ringer event. The argument is it shows you the different holes-within-a-hole for daily passholders that are going around multiple times. It better reveals the full options and flash of these larger greens at a place that emphasizes strategy. Play different angles off the tee to one pin, then switch it up to a different pin the next time around. Or maybe call it from your approach in the fairway.
Shutdown season. Due to a generationally harsh winter that ravaged this transition climate in the country, and the obvious volume of expected play, Sweetens is coming out of a complete shutdown all summer to re-grass the course. Nothing at Sweetens flies under the radar, so this news and the recovery efforts received plenty of coverage. It reopened in the fall of 2024 and our visit there in October found a healthy course, barring a few spots on collars and elsewhere still working their way back. The course was not as firm and fiery as its usual October condition, hailed as the best month to play there. The staff was working to keep things away from the edge heading into winter so it was a bit stickier and fluffier than normal.
Reef-er Madness. The next stage in the winding, sui generis path of Sweetens Cove will be coming via an infusion of private equity money from Reef Capital, the group behind a handful of golf courses, including Black Desert in Utah. The initial plans for the next phase will include a par-3 course in addition to other amenities.
Flood the zone. It is fairly well-known at this point, but just in case: the course can be completely flooded based on the whims of the Tennessee Valley Authority. This occurs typically in the months between December and March, when water can be released down the flood plain and cover the course. It often recovers remarkably well given the severity of such an intrusion, with the water draining away to reveal the golf course again.
