What Is the Golf Course at Tennessee National Like?

If you golf, the course is half the reason you are looking at Tennessee National. So here is what is known about it, stated plainly, along with what to ask the club.

What golf course does Tennessee National have?

One Greg Norman Signature course. It is the only course in the community, and it sits inside the gates.

The golf page has more on the course.

What does 7,393 yards mean for your round?

It means the course can play long. At full length, 7,393 yards is built for very strong players.

Most golfers should never see that number on their own card. Most courses are built with more than one set of tees, and the right set changes everything about a round. Ask the club which tees this course has, then pick the ones that match how far you hit the ball.

Is the Greg Norman course too hard for average golfers? covers tee choice, course rating and slope.

What does Greg Norman Signature tell you?

It tells you who was behind the design. Greg Norman is an Australian golfer and a former world number one who won The Open Championship twice. He also built a golf course design firm.

His firm describes its approach as least disturbance, which means shaping holes to fit the land that is already there.

The label does not tell you how any single hole plays. For that you have to see it. What a Greg Norman Signature golf course is explains the term in full.

What is it like to have the course at home?

Different from driving to one. The biggest change is not the design. It is the distance.

Tennessee National is a golf cart community, and the course is inside the gates. The trip to it runs through the neighborhood, not across town. That changes how golf fits into a week. Ask the community about cart routes, and ask the club about carts on the course.

• A round can fit into a weekday morning.
• Nine holes late in the day gets easy to say yes to.
• You see the same course in every season and every kind of light.
• You play more, and playing more is how most golfers get better.

After a round, there is the clubhouse and Kendall's restaurant.

Can you play golf all year in East Tennessee?

Most of it. East Tennessee has four seasons and mild winters, so the golf year is longer here than in colder states.

Winter still has cold mornings. Frost can hold up the first tee times on any course, because walking on frosted turf damages it. Spring and fall are the comfortable months. Summer is warm, so many golfers play early.

Ask the club how the course plays in each season and what the winter schedule looks like.

Who can play, and what does it cost?

Those are questions for the club. This post does not list tee time rules, guest policies, membership types or fees. They are the club's to set and the club's to quote.

What to ask:

• How does membership work, and what does each level include?
• How are tee times booked, and how far ahead?
• What is the guest policy?
• Can you use your own golf cart on the course?
• What practice areas and instruction does the club offer?

Get the answers in writing if golf is central to your decision. The cost of the home is a separate question. Pricing for homes and homesites is in the info pack.

What should you do on a first visit?

See the course the way you would play it.

1. Ask ahead whether you can play or ride the course.
2. Ask the club for the scorecard and which tees fit your game.
3. Look at several holes from those tees, not only from the road.
4. Ask to ride from a homesite you like to the first tee.
5. Stop at the clubhouse afterward.

How to evaluate a golf course on a community visit has the full checklist.

What if not everyone in the house golfs?

Then the rest of the place matters as much as the course. Golf is one amenity at Tennessee National, not the whole of it.

The same gates hold a full-service marina with 140+ boat slips on Watts Bar Lake, a pool, a fitness center, pickleball, tennis, walking trails, 22 social clubs and 180+ events a year. Do you have to golf to live at Tennessee National? answers the question directly.

The honest part

This page can give you the facts on the card. Eighteen holes. Par 72. 7,393 yards. A Greg Norman Signature design, in a community on Watts Bar Lake, about 30 minutes from Knoxville.

It cannot tell you how the greens roll, which hole you will love or whether the course fits your game. A description would only be someone else's opinion anyway. The honest way to find out is to stand on the first tee.

Facts about Tennessee National come from the community. Lake facts come from TVA. Rules, taxes, loans and insurance change, so confirm anything that affects a purchase with the right office or professional before you buy.