Sweetens Cove

You pull off I-24 in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, population around 3,000, and start wondering if your GPS is playing a prank. There is no grand entrance. No gatehouse. No valet in a polo with embroidered logos. You pass a few hand-painted signs, roll down a country road, and eventually crunch onto a gravel parking lot where the only structure that looks vaguely official is a green aluminum-sided shed and a row of port-a-potties.

Welcome to the best golf experience in America.

The Course That Should Not Exist

Sweetens Cove Golf Club is a 9-hole, par-36, 3,301-yard masterpiece tucked into the Sequatchie Valley about 25 minutes from Chattanooga. It was carved out of a defunct municipal layout called Sequatchie Valley G&CC by architect Rob Collins and his partner Tad King. Collins poured his blood, savings, and roughly two years of personally on-site shaping into the property, and when it opened in October 2014, he ran out of money the same day. He laid off his crew. The bank started circling. The course almost died before anyone played it.

Then Twitter happened. Golf writers showed up, lost their minds, and Sweetens became the original social media golf course. Today it is consistently ranked the #1 public course in Tennessee, has cracked top 50 modern courses in America, and counts Peyton Manning and Andy Roddick among its ownership group. Renowned historian Anthony Pioppi compared its MacKenzie-Jones design tenets to the original Augusta National. That is not a typo.

But forget the rankings for a second. Here is what makes Sweetens Cove the ultimate bros trip.

There Are No Tee Times. There Is a Sermon.

Sweetens does not do tee times. Instead, around 8:30 a.m. central, everyone with a pass gathers at The Shed, which is the pro shop, the check-in, the merch counter, and the spiritual center of the operation all rolled into about 400 square feet. General Manager Matt Adamski, PGA, the 2024 PGA of America Private Merchandiser of the Year and the most quotable man in golf, climbs up and delivers what can only be described as a sermon.

The rules are simple. Play with the people you brought. Show up as a foursome, play as a foursome. Show up as an eightsome, play as an eightsome. Show up as a twelvesome with three cigars apiece and a cooler full of cans, play as a twelvesome. Let groups play through. Jump ahead if you want. Skip a hole. Replay a hole. Putt out from 80 yards because you feel like it. Just do not impede on anyone else's fun.

Then Matt pours everyone a shot of Sweetens Cove bourbon, the whole crowd toasts, you get assigned a starting hole, and the day begins.

That whiskey shot is not a marketing gimmick. It is a tradition that predates the current ownership. Manning has talked about it in interviews. Guests would bring a bottle, leave a bottle, share a bottle. It was so woven into the culture that when the new ownership group came in, they built an entire spirits company around it.

The Vibe Is a Frat Party With Better Architecture

By 10 a.m. the music is already blaring across the valley. Strings of lights hang between the food truck and the pavilion. The food truck slings a smash burger that has its own following. The putting green doubles as a social hub where guys gather between loops to talk trash, sip a pour, and watch their buddies four-jab from 15 feet. The Shed does about a million dollars a year in merchandise, which is insane when you consider it is the size of a one-car garage in the middle of nowhere Tennessee. Matt has turned the hat wall into a destination of its own.

You will play your loop. Come back. Eat a burger. Pour another bourbon. Light a cigar. Smash a Zyn if that is your situation. Head back out. Play it again from different tees. Walk it the third time. The all-day pass is the entire point. People who try to play 18 and bail are missing the assignment.

Bring your favorite bottle of bourbon and leave it at the famous first tee. The tradition continues. Take a shot, leave the bottle for the next group, take a shot from whatever the last group left. By the third pass of the day, you will be making friends with strangers in a way that does not happen at the country club back home.

The Architecture Is Legitimately World-Class

Beneath all the party energy is genuinely brilliant golf design. Collins built classical features into every hole: a Redan-Punchbowl green on the 1st, a 40-degree Biarritz on the 8th, massive shared fairways with elaborate bunkering, and the wildest greens you will ever putt outside of links land. The fairways are tightly mown Bermuda. The greens are Mini Verde and they roll like marble countertops with mood swings.

Because it is nine holes, the two-pin setup means you get a completely different look on the second loop. Pin positions move dramatically across these massive greens. Hole 3 in the morning is a different hole in the afternoon. Bring every club. Use every club. You will hit a 7-iron stinger off the deck on one tee and a flop shot from a closely mown collection area on the next.

Where to Stay: The E9Retreat and the Birdhouse

There are essentially three on-site lodging options, all just steps from The Shed.

The E9Retreat is the big house. Four bedrooms, two full bathrooms plus what they affectionately call an "eshitter," six twin beds, a queen, three pull-out couches, a study they nicknamed the bourbon room, a FlightScope golf simulator/movie room, and an outdoor deck with pavilion. Sleeps a full crew comfortably. The e9 concierge will stock your kitchen before you arrive so you do not have to think about a grocery run. This is your basecamp.

The e9 tinyhouses are smaller side-by-side units that work great for a foursome or a couple. Quaint, functional, and exactly enough room to sober up before the next day. If you are looking for a pool, a spa, and turndown service with a chocolate on the pillow, you are at the wrong resort. That is not what Sweetens is about.

Then there is The Birdhouse, which is the No Laying Up branded rental house next door. Upstairs sleeps eight in individual beds, each room designed by a different NLU member as an inside joke for fans of the podcast. Downstairs sleeps six more. The basement has Horace's Place, a man cave named for the longtime owner of the original house. But the real reason to book it is the secret 10th hole.

The Secret 10th Hole

Rob Collins built a hidden tee box in the yard of the Birdhouse. It is 110 to 118 yards to the center of the 1st green at Sweetens, depending on where you tee it. It is now known as the "Yard Hole" template and it is a bucket list shot. Hitting mat, your own pin, your own green, and a porch full of buddies talking smack from 20 feet away. It is the perfect break between loops, the perfect nightcap when you are too cooked to play another nine, and the perfect grudge match setting for closest-to-the-pin with the bourbon tab on the line.

One note: no glowballs at night. The course had issues with ball marks and trash, so the rule is daytime play only from the 10th. Respect it. This place runs on trust and culture and you do not want to be the guy who breaks that.

Should You Go?

If you want a manicured corridor of cart paths, a spa appointment at 4 p.m., and a sommelier walking you through the wine list at dinner, book Pinehurst. Sweetens is the opposite of that. It is gravel and aluminum and bourbon and a smash burger and 12 of your closest buddies on a putting green at sunset wondering how you waited this long to find this place.

It is the most fun you can have with a golf club in your hand in America. Make the trip. Bring the cigars. Bring the bottle. Leave the bottle. Take the shot.

And tell Matt you are playing as an eightsome. He will love it.