Golf courses by state
Tennessee Golf Courses & Tee Times
The Tennessee Golf Association was founded at Memphis Country Club in 1914 by five private clubs, and the State Amateur has been played every year since, one of the longest-running amateur events in the country. Cary Middlecoff won it four years in a row before winning two U.S. Opens and the Masters. The TGA now counts over 50,000 members and more than 200 clubs, runs 22 championships, and shares Golf House Tennessee in Franklin, home of the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame and a par-3 nine, with the Tennessee Golf Foundation and the Tennessee PGA.
Tee times in Tennessee are easier to get when you know when they open. Yoink watches 112 public golf courses here, grouped into 6 markets: Knoxville & Chattanooga, Nashville, Crossville & the Upper Cumberland, Jackson & West Tennessee and more. Choose a market to see every course, then get an alert when a tee time opens or someone cancels.
Tennessee golf markets
Knoxville & Chattanooga
Avalon Country Club, Bear Trace Cumberland Mountain, Dandridge Country Club…
Nashville
Country Hills Golf Course, Harpeth Hills Golf Course, Henry Horton Golf Course…
Crossville & the Upper Cumberland
Bear Trace at Harrison Bay, Bear Trace at Tims Ford, Brainerd Golf Course…
Jackson & West Tennessee
Paris Landing State Park Golf Course, Pickwick Landing State Park Golf Course, Dyersburg Municipal Golf Course…
Tri-Cities — Johnson City, Kingsport & Bristol
Pine Oaks Golf Course, Tri-Cities Golf Club, Warriors Path…
Memphis
Mirimichi Golf Course, Fair Oaks Golf Club, Forest Hill Golf Course…
Who runs public golf in Tennessee
Tennessee State Parks runs nine courses. Three are Bear Trace courses: Cumberland Mountain and Harrison Bay are Jack Nicklaus designs, and Tims Ford is the third. The six traditional courses are Fall Creek Falls, Henry Horton, Montgomery Bell, Paris Landing, Pickwick Landing and Warriors' Path. Henry Horton, opened in the early 1960s, was the first course on what became the Tennessee Golf Trail. There is no statewide pass, but each pro shop sells an unlimited pass for its own course. The big cities own their own courses: Metro Nashville has six regular courses plus a par 3, led by Shelby, the city's first municipal course in 1924. Knoxville owns three and Chattanooga two, including Donald Ross's Brainerd. In Memphis, the city's Links at Audubon was redesigned by Bill Bergin in 2023. The Tennessee Golf Foundation's Kids Play Free program gives juniors free golf at several facilities.
Public courses worth knowing in Tennessee
- Bear Trace Cumberland Mountain: Nicklaus design in Crossville, par 72 at 6,928 yards; State Parks says Golfweek named it the top public course in Tennessee twice.
- Fall Creek Falls: Joe Lee design with almost no parallel holes.
- Henry Horton Golf Course: First course on what became the Tennessee Golf Trail, opened in the early 1960s, 7,060 yards from the back.
- Shelby Golf Course: Nashville's first municipal course, opened in 1924.
- Ted Rhodes Golf Course: Metro Nashville course named in 1969 for the Black Nashville pro who paved the way for Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder and Tiger Woods.
- Brainerd Golf Course: Donald Ross design and one of Chattanooga's oldest city courses.
Booking tee times in Tennessee: the local rules
There is no single statewide system. State park courses set their own windows: Fall Creek Falls takes tee times 14 days out through the pro shop, Henry Horton seven by phone and six online, Montgomery Bell six. Metro Nashville releases times seven days ahead for everyone, online from 10:00 AM. Chattanooga's city courses book up to five days out.
Yoink
Book on release day, then let Yoink watch the rest
Booking windows decide who gets first pick. After that, times come back one at a time as plans change. Yoink watches all 112 courses in Tennessee and tells you when a time that fits comes back, so you're not refreshing the page all week.
Towns with the most courses
- Knoxville · 7
- Oak Ridge · 3
- Old Hickory · 3
- Clarksville · 3
- Crossville · 2
- Loudon · 2
- Franklin · 2
- Chattanooga · 2
- Millington · 2
- Gatlinburg · 1
- Duluth · 1
- Dandridge · 1
- LaFollette · 1
- Maryville · 1
- Vonore · 1
- Athens · 1
- Oneida · 1
- Strawberry Plains · 1
- Niota · 1
- Lewisburg · 1
- Chapel Hill · 1
- College Grove · 1
- Gallatin · 1
- Burns · 1
Getting a tee time in Tennessee
Spring and fall are peak season in Tennessee. In summer the heat pushes everyone toward early morning, so the first few hours of the day fill before anything else.
Most public courses open their tee sheet a set number of days ahead, often 7 to 14, and many municipal courses give residents or card holders an earlier window. The best weekend-morning times usually go the day they're released. Leagues and outings take blocks of the sheet before the public ever sees them.
A full tee sheet rarely stays full. Many courses let you cancel without a fee up to 24 or 48 hours before your time, so spots tend to reappear in the last couple of days. A bad forecast shakes more loose, and a foursome that drops to three opens a single. None of it is announced. The time just shows up again on the booking page, and whoever looks first gets it.
Yoink
Every course in Tennessee on one watchlist: all 112 of them
Yoink checks all 112 courses in Tennessee every few minutes, so every open time is in one place and you're the first to know when one that fits your day, window and group appears, cancellations included.
Tee times in Tennessee: questions
How do I get tee time cancellation alerts in Tennessee?
Pick your courses in Yoink (112 in Tennessee), set the days, time window and group size you want, and Yoink sends a notification when a matching time opens up. You book directly with the course.
When is golf season busiest in Tennessee?
Demand peaks in spring and fall, and early in the morning in summer. Weekend mornings are the hardest tee times to get.
When do tee time cancellations usually show up?
Mostly in the 24 to 48 hours before the tee time, as golfers cancel ahead of the course's cancellation deadline, and whenever the forecast turns.
Sources
Facts on this page come from these pages, checked 2026-09-28. Rates and booking rules change, so confirm with the course.
- tngolf.org · association
- tngolffoundation.org · association
- tnstateparks.com · government
- tnstateparks.com · government
- tnstateparks.com · government
- tnstateparks.com · government
- tnstateparks.com · government
- nashville.gov · government
- nashville.gov · government
- knoxvilletn.gov · government
- chattanooga.gov · government
- memphistravel.com · media
- nashville.gov · government
The best tee times in Tennessee open up at random
Cancellations don't get announced. Yoink watches the sheets around the clock and buzzes your phone when one fits.