Black Creek Club

Overview: Black Creek Club is a private Brian Silva design in Chattanooga's Cummings Cove, where the course uses Golden Age ideas on a wooded, rolling site. The 18-hole layout combines broad corridors with sharply defined bunkers, squared green corners and template-inspired features associated with Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor. Creek edges and the surrounding mountains give the property a strong sense of place, while the strategic interest comes from how the approach angles change around the large, expressive greens. The course is polished and modern in construction but deliberately classical in its architectural vocabulary.

History: The course opened in September 2000 as the centerpiece of a residential community. Silva's brief was not to copy a single historic course, but to reinterpret Golden Age principles for the Chattanooga terrain. The result quickly became a regional reference point for modern template architecture, and Black Creek later hosted the Chattanooga Classic, a Nationwide Tour event. The club's identity remains closely tied to the balance between residential development and the preservation of the site's natural folds, trees and water.

Did You Know? Golf Digest singled out Black Creek's par-five sixth as one of the best holes in America designed after 2000. The hole hides its green behind a tall embankment and bunkers before opening into a large punchbowl arena, turning a seemingly wide approach into a problem of timing, line and landing speed.