Black Creek Club (Chattanooga, TN on 06/17/18)

Our final group round was at Black Creek Club, which is located on the west side of Chattanooga. One of my friends had been in contact with the club and was able to make arrangements for us to play. The club is private so it was extremely nice of them to have us out!

Black Creek is about 25 miles from Sweetens Cove, where we played in the morning. We grabbed some lunch once we got into Chattanooga and came to the realization that our time in the Central Time Zone (you can re-read that if needed!) was over. I’m not sure exactly where the dividing line between the Central and Eastern Time Zones is around here, but the courses we played on Sunday were in different time zones. Basically we lost an hour driving 25 miles! I don’t think I’ve ever played two courses in two different time zones during the same day!

Alright, enough nonsense and onto the review! Black Creek is one of those private courses in the Chattanooga area that makes golf course collectors drool. Because I’m not a member anywhere I don’t follow the private courses as closely as the public ones, but I am always seeing the private Chattanooga courses suggested for those with connections.

We checked in and were able to head over to the 1st tee almost right away. There was a member group teeing off when arrived so we backed up the carts and rolled a few putts, to give them some space. I think that group must have only played a few holes because after the 5th hole I didn’t see them again. We made it around in less than four hours which is always a nice pace!

From a golf course perspective there are two things that stood out to me about Black Creek after playing it. The first is the awesome surroundings and the second are the template holes. Besides our drive on I-24 earlier in the day, I had never been to Chattanooga. The area is very pretty with the nearby Tennessee River and Appalachian Mountains. In fact, Chattanooga is called the Scenic City, and for good reason! I’m sure if you are looking to join Black Creek then there are many more things that stand out about the club, but you’ll have to get that info from a member.

It seems everywhere you turn at Black Creek you get nice views! The Tennessee River is a few miles away so you don’t see the river from the course, however you do get plenty of mountain views. And I’m sure you know by now that I love a course with scenery! The 1st hole gives you a taste of what to expect for the rest of the round. It plays from an elevated tee with mountains basically ringing around you. There are many elevated tees to help you take it all in and the elevated tees also add some guesswork. The back nine works its way up into a hillside and I think the 12th through the 16th are the highlight stretch.

The other interesting thing about Black Creek to me were the template holes. Brian Silva is the designer and I’m not terribly familiar with his work. What I’ve gathered from my reading is that Silva wanted Black Creek to be a tribute to two designers that he admired, Seth Raynor and Charles Blair Macdonald. That is about as far into the weeds as I can comfortably go, architecturally speaking at least! Putting it in layman’s terms, Black Creek is not even 20 years old, yet it has many classic hole designs.

In case you are still curious about what I mean by classic, template holes then head over to Google and type in “punchbowl golf green”, “redan golf hole” and “biarritz golf green”. You’ll be able to find as much as you want to read! What is so neat about Black Creek is that it features all of those historically significant designs, and more.

The 6th is the first template hole that I recognized during the round. We played the blue tees and from there the hole is a modest, 511 yard par-5. The tee shot isn’t very difficult and if you can find the fairway you can have some fun! I hit one of my better drives of the trip and had about 225 yards to the center of the green. All I could see from the fairway is a mound covered in native grass and a tall, round marker that directed me towards the green. Since it was quiet we rode up closer and found the punchbowl green. Basically, any shot getting over the mound has a good chance of rolling down onto the green. All the contour around the green feeds towards the center, so it could be an easy birdie!

The 7th is other template hole on the front nine that I recognized. The 7th is a 215 yard par-3 that is considered a reverse redan. The green slopes severely from left to right and if you go at anything but the left edge of the green then there is a cavernous bunker that gobbles up golf balls. You want to try to use that left to right slope as much as possible.

On the back nine the 17th is another par-3 with some architectural significance. The 17th is a downhill, 180ish yard par-3 with a biarritz green. Because of some quickly approaching storms I didn’t get a good picture of the deep swale in the middle of the green, but there are three distinct sections to a biarritz green. There is a higher front section, the swale in the middle, and then a higher back section.

As you’d expect from an upscale, private course the conditions were solid. The greens are bent grass and they were firm and smooth. Bent grass, firm and summer aren’t usually words that go together! I’m sure to some of the members the greens are slower right now, but they rolled at what I’d call a nice holing pace. I can only imagine how quick they are in the fall! The fairways looked to have been recently aerated, but that didn’t influence play. Everything was nice and lush.

Overall, I’m glad to have played Black Creek! If you have the chance to play it I say give it a try. The course has a nice mix of historical golf holes and I thought it was very playable – there is plenty of space off the tee. After just one time playing it, the course struck me as one where you can intentionally try to avoid the trouble and still put together a good score. The blue tees were a perfect fit for my game at 6611 yards, with a rating of 72.3 and a slope of 132. The deep, steep faced bunkers here are going to be the biggest trouble spots as well as trying not to make a mess on some tricky short game shots.

#1 (402 yard par 4):