Golf

Why this rural 9-hole course was my favorite I played in 2022

Sweetens Cove offers a mess of the way to navigate it, nevertheless it’s the expansive greens that dictate the perfect route and problem you to be daring.

Ryan Barath

At GOLF.com, our pastime can also be our job. That means, identical to you, we spend a lot of the 12 months teeing it up excessive, swinging laborious and making an attempt to keep away from double bogeys. But some programs we come upon are merely extra memorable than others. Here, for the second straight 12 months, we unveil our favorite public programs we played in 2022.

ICYMI: Why this easy Scottish course was my favorite I played in 2022

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I understand this goes to sound loopy however I don’t play loads of golf outdoors of my geographical location, so any probability I get to play someplace particular I bounce on the alternative. For 2022, that chance was to play at Sweetens Cove Golf Club in South Pittsburg, Tenn.

The well-known signal that welcomes golfers.

Ryan Barath

The alternative to play got here due to an invite to a multiple-day occasion from my good friend Peter, and it took no time for me to answer: “Yes!” And though it was by invitation, there isn’t any want to fret, Sweetens of course is public.

For these nonetheless unaware, Sweetens Cove is the darling of the golf course nerd world thanks in half to its extraordinarily fascinating set of greens, off-the-beaten-path location, simplicity and expansive capability to benefit from the course in so many various and imaginative methods.

Before I made the 14-hour drive from Toronto to South Pittsburg, loads of my common {golfing} buddies requested if I would get bored taking part in a 9-hole course for 3 days straight, however the reality is you could possibly in all probability play it for per week and nonetheless not fairly perceive it in its entirety.

What separates Sweetens from any golf expertise that I have ever had is the distinction between the seriousness of the best way the sport is loved to the relaxed ambiance that the course presents. Everyone there desires you to have enjoyable, and they’re there to facilitate the experiences from solar as much as solar down, even should you stroll off with extra three-putts than you’d prefer to admit. Wait, is three-putting enjoyable? It is at Sweetens.

The view from behind the third gap.

Christian Hafer

From tee-to-green, the course offers a mess of the way to navigate it, nevertheless it’s the expansive greens that not solely dictate the perfect path to take however problem you to be daring. Depending on the pin placements, they’re a number of the most diabolical you may think about, however don’t ever name them unfair.

To be unfair means to be deceitful, however the problem at Sweetens Cove is correct there in entrance of you — you simply have to determine how you’re going to design your personal journey on each gap.

The strategy to the sixth inexperienced.

Ryan Barath

For me, the perfect and worst is the sixth gap, a Road Hole template primarily based on the seventeenth at St Andrews that asks the query of how near do need to put your self towards the hazard to make your subsequent shot simpler? The hazard in this case is a pond that guards the left facet of the green and temps you to take it on, and even then the pond nonetheless guards the entrance of the inexperienced. I beloved each a part of the sixth gap — regardless that it ate my lunch each probability it obtained.

Having enjoyable taking part in golf to me isn’t about capturing a profession rating or gathering bag tags from Top 100 programs (though I’m all the time open to an invitation), it’s about overcoming the problem you might be offered and having enjoyable with pals alongside the best way. For that cause taking part in Sweetens Cove with so many nice individuals makes it my favorite place I played all 12 months.

Ryan Barath

Golf.com Editor

Ryan Barath is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s senior editor for tools. He has an in depth club-fitting and -building background with greater than 20 years of expertise working with golfers of all talent ranges, together with PGA Tour gamers. Before becoming a member of the employees, he was the lead content material strategist for Tour Experience Golf, in Toronto, Canada.


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