Nestled in the Foothills of East Tennessee...
Written: May 19 '06
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Pros: Great putting greens, excellent layout, $20 for a round with a cart.
Cons: Fairways and clubhouse facilities.
The Bottom Line: I love the greens and the hole layouts, but don't like the fairways. Still, if you're in the neighborhood (what are the odds?) it's a fun round of golf.
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| davke's Full Review: The Golf Club |
The Golf Club has been on my list of courses to play almost since I arrived in Knoxville, and I finally got to spend an afternoon on it. Two major items first brought the course to my attention: the audacious name and the greens.
First, whoever named The Golf Club is a person with an excellent sense of humor. The clubhouse appears to be a slightly converted barn. The snack bar is a couple of soda machines and several bowls of candy. The decor is Early 1960s Basement, except for the furniture, which consists mainly of a sofa that looks suspiciously like one my mother donated to Goodwill in 1983. The rental clubs behind the counter are Smithsonian-worthy. In short, there's not much "Club," leaving only "The Golf." I liked it immediately.
Second, the greens get mentioned a fair bit, at least locally, because they're "dwarf jensen," a type of bermuda grass excellently suited to putting greens, but not often used because the strain is fairly new (I'm told). The greens are, indeed, excellent. They're sponge-like in their ability to hold a shot (I hit a 3-iron draw onto one, and it didn't roll more than 10 feet). The speed is decent -- though never quite as fast as I kept thinking -- and the breaks are visible and predictable. I am now a fan of dwarf jensen greens.
And I have to say that I'm also a fan of the rest of this course. It's got personality.
The scorecard claims there are four tee boxes, but we saw no signs of the "orange" championship tees. From the tips, though, the course measures out at 6,550 yards. We played from the middle tees at 5,863 yards. That's not a huge course, but it's a par 73. The front tees measure out at only 4,847 yards, and they're a par 76.... I've never played a par 76 course before.
How do you get that many strokes for less than 7,000 yards? Water and acute angles. For instance, the ninth hole plays at 285 yards, but it's a par 4. The play is to hit your tee shot 180 yards straight down the fairway, so that it clears a line of trees and lands next to a pond. From there, you will hit to the green on the other side of the pond at a 90-degree angle to the tee box. There is no way to hit the green from the tee box -- you can't cut the trees, and even if you could, the teeny-tiny green wouldn't hold your shot. It's a great hole. Similarly, the toughest hole on the course, the fourth, is 465 yards of par 5. The green is water-front property. I got greenside in two with a driver and five-wood (an elevated tee, a tail wind, and goading from an 82-year-old playing partner helped), but the sensible play is two irons to lay up and then a wedge over the water. The problem in going for it, as I did, is that the green is surrounded by mounds, and you'll likely end up on one, as I did. Then comes the delicate down-hill chip back toward the pond. (By the way, there's a three-pound bass in that pond.) I absolutely love that hole.
There are four par 3s in the round, all of them fairly gentle tests. There are remnants of sand traps but they are grassed over, likely to protect the dwarf jensen, and the surrounding trees block the heavier winds from coming into play. The driving holes are also nice, with broad fairways that can hold the ball. The scorecard doesn't list overall slope, but several of the fairways have some steep undulation in them. Yet they have their target points, too, places that are obviously safe to hit to. The trees are definitely surlyn magnets -- as is what grows under them (an itchy, red calf suggests poison ivy) -- further emphasizing the shot-making nature of the course.
I had a blast on this course. But there's bad news.
The tee boxes are great, if a little tough for longer tees, and the targets are fair and visible. And the greens, as mentioned before, are also great. But what's in between the tees and greens needs some work. There are patches of weeds... there are bald spots... there is some sort of pasture grass... in the fairway. Geez. C'mon guys! A herd of goats could mow and fertilize a fairway better. That's gonna cost you a star in this review.
And then the clubhouse, as charmingly rustic as it is, has gotta cost you another star. Nobody really needs souvenir shirts, but at least get a few decent brands of balls (new ones, please, still in the packaging), some fresh fruit and bottled water in there. It's not unusual for golf courses around here to not have a driving range, so I can't count off for a lack of practice facilities. And the practice putting green is in good shape. So kudos there. But the things that aren't on the course are important, too, and they've been neglected at The Golf Club.
The Golf Club is actually several miles south of Maryville, and durn hard to find. You've got to know where the signs are (and there's a sign that points out that I just missed the turn to The Golf Club) just to find the signs. Bonus points for the coolness factor of "you gotta want it," but it's tougher to make money that way. The people playing golf at The Golf Club are either very local or very dedicated -- meaning the place is pretty much empty. We walked on at 11:30 on a Friday. Nobody on the first tee. Nobody crowding us all day. It was great. Twenty dollars paid for a round with a cart.
Dozens of people read my golf course Epinions. For those few people -- likely looking for an insomnia cure -- I have a hard time recommending you go out of your way to play The Golf Club. But if you're on Highway 411, with a bag of clubs in your trunk and four hours to kill, you should try to find one of those signs and then find the course.
I'd play it again, despite its three star rating.
Recommended:
Yes
Green Fees Paid (US$): 20
Speed of Play (typical weekend): 4 to 5 Hours
Look Out For: Trees
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Epinions.com ID:
davke
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Member: David
Location: Greene Co., Tennessee
Reviews written: 51
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
I Epinions, therefore I am.
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