The Honors Course

The verdict

The Honors Course was conceived as a shrine to amateur golf, and it plays like one. The Chattanooga businessman Jack Lupton founded the club in 1983 with a clear purpose, to celebrate the amateur game and to host its great championships, and he hired Pete Dye to build a course worthy of that ambition. Dye routed it through a nature preserve of native grasses, hardwood and water on rolling Tennessee land, and the result is one of the most respected and demanding courses in the southeast, a layout that asks every question of the strong player.

For the traveling golfer this is a private club of real pedigree, the kind of course that rarely appears on a public itinerary but rewards the rare chance to play it. The Honors has staged the U.S. Amateur, the Curtis Cup, the U.S. Mid-Amateur and the U.S. Junior Amateur, and the test that challenged those fields is the same one a visiting golfer faces. Dye's bunkering, the native grasses framing the corridors and the firm, contoured greens make it a serious examination, and folded into a wider Tennessee golf trip it ranks among the courses the keenest players most want to experience.

The holes worth the trip

The Honors Course is a Pete Dye examination from the first tee, where the native grasses and the framing woodland leave no doubt that position is everything. Dye used the rolling preserve land to create corridors that demand a committed line off the tee, with bunkering and waste areas set exactly where a loose shot will be punished. The greens are firm and full of movement, so the approach must finish on the correct portion of the surface to leave a makeable putt, and from the wrong angle par becomes a hard won score.

The water comes into play on several of the most memorable holes, in the Dye manner, fronting greens and squeezing landing areas to ask for a brave carry. The par 3s are particularly strong, played to greens defended by sand and slope where club selection and nerve decide the result, and the long par 4s reward the player who can drive the ball into the right portion of the fairway. There is a relentlessness to the test that the championship fields have spoken of, a course that gives nothing away and demands concentration to the last.

From the back tees at about 7,400 yards, with a course rating and slope that mark it as one of the toughest in the region, the Honors is a full championship examination. The defense is classic Dye, the bunkering, the native grasses, the water and the contoured greens rather than a single gimmick, and the multiple tees keep it fair for members of every standard. Play it and you understand why Jack Lupton chose this site and this architect to honor the amateur game.

Where to stay nearby

The Honors Course sits in Ooltewah just east of Chattanooga, so the natural base is the city itself, a revived riverfront town with good hotels, dining and the attractions of Lookout Mountain and the Tennessee River close at hand. Chattanooga gives the easiest air access and a lively evening scene, and it sits centrally for a wider tour of the state's golf.

Most visiting golfers fold the Honors into a Tennessee golf trip, given its private access. Pair a Chattanooga base with the bold minimalist nine of Sweetens Cove Golf Club a short drive west and the Tom Fazio championship golf of The Golf Club of Tennessee over toward Nashville for a week that takes in the best of the state.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts near Chattanooga.