The Volunteer State of Tennessee is situated in the South Eastern Region of the US and it celebrated its bicentennial in 1996. As state capital Nashville is synonymous with country and western music and Memphis, the largest city in the state, is regarded by many as the birthplace of the blues, Tennessee has certainly played a prominent part in shaping contemporary musical tastes in the United States and beyond.

Five private clubs founded the Tennessee Golf Association in 1914 and it now looks after the golfing interests of around 37,000 amateur men and women (even though there are four ladies associations in the state) playing in 220 clubs across Tennessee. In 1991, the TGA joined forces with the Tennessee Section of the PGA to form the Tennessee Golf Foundation which promotes the game at amateur and professional levels.

A couple of new millennium layouts have raised the state’s golfing profile and they are Brian Silva’s Black Creek course in Chattanooga and the Jack Nicklaus-designed Spring Creek Ranch in Collierville. Two Donald Ross tracks from the 1920s are also highly regarded within Tennessee: Belle Meade in Nashville has, unfortunately, undergone a number of revisions down the years but the 18 holes at Holston Hills in Knoxville have remained largely unaltered since they were first set out. Pete Dye’s nationally acclaimed Honors Course – venue for the US Amateur in 1991 and the Curtis Cup in 1994 – occupies the number one position in the state rankings.

Our Tennessee Best In State Rankings were last updated in September 2020. Click the link to read the story.