As recently noted by my esteemed yet youthful colleague Brandon Tucker, it seems every state is trying to cobble together some sort of ad hoc golf trail. Tucker points out that some of these trails are more like points in a constellation than stops along a logically ordered trail.

Such is the case at the Tennessee Golf Trail. This collection of 13 state-run courses, including five Bear Trace courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, is scattered throughout the entire freakin’ state – not in any sort of trail-like configuration unless you’re hopelessly drunk and disoriented.

Nevertheless, these courses are fabulous destinations individually.

I just returned from Fall Creek Falls State Park in Pikeville, and was impressed by the quality of this inexpensive park course. The greens were firm, fast, and often sufficiently turtle-backed to punish inexact approaches. The tee shots almost all required players to work the ball, usually right to left but also left to right. Well-manicured fairways (for the most part) were lined with pinball-machine trees that penalized more than one flared drive or sloppily attempted punch-out.

And all this for $28-$40/round (with cart, though the layout was also very walkable).

Who needs a trail? One destination at a time is plenty when the courses are this cheap and enjoyable.

Fall Creek Falls State Park Golf Course challenges the golfer, not the golfer’s wallet.

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