Sequoyah National

Although Great Smoky Mountains National Park is headquartered in Tennessee, perhaps the best golf option for players in the region is across the border in North Carolina, at Robert Trent Jones Junior’s Sequoyah National Golf Club. The course belongs to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, so it’s appropriate that Notah Begay III — a former PGA pro and Navajo/Pueblo — contributed to the routing.

The course, despite its mountain setting, is not very long (6,500 yards), putting more emphasis on the player’s willingness to take risks in order to secure a red number. Examples will come early, such as at the short dogleg left No. 4 where players, teeing off downhill, will notice that the green is angled toward them, with a generous tongue for accepting bombs from 330 yards out. Can you really carry the marsh to get there? Jones and Begay are curious to see you try.

Hole names give some character across the round. Players may feel the sting early when they enter “Hornet Place”; the 165-yard par three plays entirely across a marsh to a green built atop a rock wall. Jones returned during 2020 for bunker renovations and re-grassing.