Featured Stop: Sweetens Cove

More than a few canisters of ink have been spilled on the story of Sweetens Cove, a 9-hole golf course thrown down in rural Tennessee, a half-hour from Chattanooga and two hours from Nashville. Most of it has been exceedingly glowing.

“Pure golf,” wrote the Fried Egg‘s Andy Johnson. “That’s the sensation you feel the moment you step foot on the grounds of Sweetens Cove Golf Club.” It’s a golf course that is “bathing in its make-do spirit,” famed golf writer Michael Bamberger wrote, concluding of his trip: “What makes Sweetens Cove, more than anything, is its vibe. It’s refined pasture golf, if those words can coexist.”

It has always been first and foremost about the golf at Sweetens. It has existed with no dress code, no accompanying resort, hardly a clubhouse. It boasts big fairways and rugged bunkers and maniacally sloped greens. Opened in 2014, it’s the heart and soul of Rob Collins, who has more “sweat equity and personal investment in a single golf property” than any other modern architect, Fried Egg says.

And, in a true sign of how the golf world has embraced Collins’ vision and tireless execution, Sweetens Cove is undergoing expansion that will be ready by 2026. It will steer into its middle-of-nowhere feel with options for on-site, non-golf activity (a fishing dock, a shooting range). It will add more golf in the form of a massive putting green and Collins-designed par-3 course. It will sprout a few stay-and-play cabins. And it will bring in something that had been hard to come by in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee: Good food. The resort is adding a restaurant and an on-site distillery for its namesake bourbon.

After a greens issue caused the course to close down last summer, Sweetens is jam-packed for 2025. A quick scan does not reveal a single open slot, although the other way to play it is through its frequent events—and spots are still open there. Otherwise, plug into the course’s instagram, await new announcements on open dates, and prepare the group chat to act quickly.

This piece originally ran in the GTG newsletter. Subscribe here and get the weekly featured stop—plus news on openings, redesigns, and more—in your inbox each Thursday afternoon.