Mountain golf in Tennessee delivers unforgettable scenery — rolling ridgelines, hardwood forests, and dramatic elevation swings — but also a unique design challenge: water never sits still.
For Jeff Lawrence, ASGCA of Lawrence Golf Design, that challenge defines the beauty and complexity of renovating high-terrain golf courses across the Southern Appalachians.
“Every foot of elevation can change how water moves, turf grows, and golf plays,” Lawrence explains. “Good mountain design is about respecting that movement — not fighting it.”
The biggest mistake in mountain golf renovation is treating slopes as liabilities instead of opportunities.
Lawrence’s planning process begins with elevation mapping and hydrologic modeling, which reveal how rainfall, runoff, and shade interact across steep corridors.
Lawrence Golf Design uses this data to reshape subtle high points and capture water in predictable paths — a strategy refined on projects like Cedarbrook Country Club and Lake Hickory Country Club, both located in foothill terrain similar to East Tennessee.
These courses demonstrated how small grading adjustments can yield huge maintenance savings without erasing the natural topography.
In Tennessee’s mountain regions, rainfall intensity can exceed 50 inches per year. When combined with clay subsoils and granite shelves, that water has nowhere to go.
Jeff Lawrence addresses this by layering three complementary systems:
On courses like Lake Hickory, these systems are hidden from view but critical to daily playability.
“A well-drained course doesn’t look engineered,” Lawrence notes. “It just feels firm, consistent, and healthy — even after an inch of rain.”
Mountain microclimates often swing from cool mornings to 90-degree afternoons, stressing turf.
Lawrence Golf Design’s green complexes in these regions feature precision-balanced slopes that optimize sun exposure and airflow — critical for cool-season bentgrass or blended turf systems.
Jeff Lawrence encourages:
These design cues directly apply to Tennessee layouts, where mixed light patterns and hillside shade make agronomic balance a daily battle.
Mountain bunkers are notorious for washouts. The solution isn’t deeper sand; it’s smarter geometry.
Lawrence Golf Design modernizes bunkers using:
Lawrence emphasizes visual continuity — bunkers should still frame shots naturally but without becoming maintenance drains after every thunderstorm.
“Gravity can be your ally if you give it a place to go,” he says.
Mountain golf doesn’t need imported drama — the land already provides it.
Lawrence’s design ethos emphasizes utilizing site-specific features, native vegetation, and selective tree management to open up long views while restoring airflow and sunlight to playing corridors.
Lawrence often encourages superintendents to remove trees strategically, not wholesale.
“Clearing five key pines can have more impact than cutting fifty,” he notes. “You change wind, light, and turf health all at once.”
This restrained philosophy keeps Tennessee’s mountain courses feeling authentic — rustic yet refined.
Mountain climates are becoming wetter, not drier.
To future-proof against erosion and flooding, Lawrence Golf Design integrates:
These micro-engineering details protect the course while maintaining visual harmony. The outcome is a course that looks timeless but performs modern — a hallmark of Lawrence Golf Design’s Appalachian work.
For Tennessee golf courses built in the 1970s–1990s, renovation today is an act of preservation.
Modernizing bunkers, greens, and routing for water flow doesn’t erase history — it extends it.
Lawrence Golf Design’s regional projects in similar geographies prove that combining hydrology, contour study, and restraint can bring aging mountain courses back to life.
Mountain golf renovation is a study in balance.
By harmonizing engineering precision with natural beauty, Tennessee’s clubs can maintain championship conditions without losing their rugged identity.