Holston Hills was laid out and built in 1927, part of a burst of golf construction in Knoxville during the late 1920s. Contemporary sources and the club’s own records attribute the design to Donald Ross, and the new course immediately drew state-wide competitive traffic. The property—then largely treeless farmland with subtle undulation—allowed Ross to route 18 holes that used existing rises and ridges for targets and green pads.
Through the late twentieth century Holston Hills altered little relative to many peer courses. In 1997 the club engaged Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design for light-touch work: restoring a handful of grass-faced bunkers, advising on tree thinning, and helping set mowing lines “including perimeters for the new USGA greens.” The emphasis was to re-present Ross features rather than to recast them.
A subsequent phase of physical work followed: a News Sentinel report documents a bunker-restoration project led by architect Bruce Hepner with MacCurrach Golf in 2006 (Hepner had been a longtime Renaissance associate) and, in 2012, a comprehensive upgrade to Holston Hills’ practice facilities. In early 2016 McConnell Golf acquired the club.
Most recently, starting June 2024, Kris Spence directed a course-wide bunker renovation, undertaken with reference to Ross’s original drawings and aerial photographs. Club communications describe the goals as improving drainage and playability while retaining period-appropriate forms and placements. Social and trade coverage in late 2024 and 2025 echoed those aims.
Unique Design Characteristics
Holston Hills’ character hinges on green sites and the way Ross used short approaches to test control. Ran Morrissett’s detailed course profile highlights several anchor examples. The par-4 2nd is presented as one of Ross’s rare “Cape” interpretations, requiring a bite-off-as-you-dare tee shot over water to set up a running approach into an open front. The par-4 3rd bends right around a four-bunker complex; the green sits on the far side of a natural swale and “slopes severely back to front,” a theme repeated across the course.
The long par-5 5th features staggered fairway bunkers, including a cross-bunker some 270 yards short of the green, insisting on three engaged shots rather than a lax lay-up. The short-par-5 7th employs a genuine split fairway—left for the bold line over water and contour, right for the longer, safer route—before a diagonal bunker array complicates the second shot. Both holes illustrate Ross’s preference here to defend with positioning and green contours more than with claustrophobic tee corridors.
On the inward nine, the uphill par-4 12th carries a green with the most pronounced back-to-front pitch on the course; the club’s hole guide also notes deep bunkering well short and left. The par-3 14th shows a strong false front and a left bunker catching even well-struck tee shots drifting with the slope. The par-4 15th is a signature: five-foot-tall cross-mounding bisects the fairway near the tee shot’s landing zone, and the putting surface falls smartly from back to front with interior contours that reward precise distance control. The push-up, drivable 16th (with small bunkers in front) and the bunkered approach zones into the par-4 13th—where a string of bunkers begins roughly 60 yards short and wraps to the green’s right—extend this theme. Taken together, holes 2, 7, 12–16 are the clearest surviving illustrations of Ross’s Holston Hills vocabulary because their strategic asks are still legible and, per published accounts, have required minimal re-imagining across the decades.
Historical Significance
Within Ross’s body of work, Holston Hills has been singled out by historians and architects as unusually intact. Morrissett calls it “as well a preserved Donald Ross course as can be found,” and the club has long used Tom Doak’s often-quoted praise that Holston Hills remains closest to Ross’s original intention. Rankings have reflected this reputation; for example, Golfweek’s 2010 list of “Top 100 Classic Courses” included Holston Hills.
The competitive ledger is substantial. Byron Nelson won the PGA Tour’s Knoxville Open here in 1945 during his famed streak, with Herman Keiser winning in 1946. The club hosted NCAA Championships (1955, 1965), the Southern Amateur (1952, 1961, 1983, 1995), the 1982 PGA Cup Matches, and the 2004 USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur (won by Corey Weworski). Since 2019 the Visit Knoxville Open has been staged at Holston Hills; the PGA Tour announced in November 2024 an extension of the event at the club through 2030.
Current Condition / Integrity
Routing, hole sequence, and the broad corridors described in early accounts remain in place, and the course still plays primarily as Ross set it out, with width into strategically defended, often elevated or benched greens. Renaissance’s 1997 consultation sought to restore original mowing lines and grass-faced bunker characteristics and to remove encroaching trees; subsequent 2006 bunker work was again restoration-oriented. The 2012 practice-ground project upgraded training spaces without touching the original routing. The 2024 Spence program rebuilt bunkers with an eye to period forms, modern drainage, and recalibrated placements relative to today’s hitting distances—done, per the club, with Ross drawings and historic aerials at the elbow. The cumulative effect has been to keep the golf character centered on Ross’s green complexes and diagonal hazards while improving maintenance and storm performance.
Specific features that appear notably preserved include the 2nd’s cape-style drive, the four-bunker inner corner on 3, the cross-bunker patterns on 5, the split fairway at 7, the benched 9th green below the clubhouse, the uphill 12th’s pitched surface, the long approach bunkering into 13, and the cross-mounded 15th. Where change has occurred, it has tended to be in surface refinement—USGA-spec greens perimeters and mowing lines in the late 1990s, sand profile and drainage improvements in 2006 and 2024—rather than re-siting holes. Tree management has kept playing corridors open relative to the mid-century “parkland” trend.
Sources & Notes
GolfClubAtlas. “Holston Hills (2014)”—course profile with historical overview, hole-by-hole notes, and account of 1997 Renaissance work. Accessed Nov. 24, 2024 update.
Holston Hills Country Club. “Golf at Holston Hills” (club website): hole descriptions; 2024 bunker renovation overview; club positioning and facilities.
Holston Hills Country Club. Men’s scorecard (PDF): yardages, par, slope/rating; event history list (Knoxville Open 1945/46; Southern Amateur 1952, 1961, 1983, 1995; NCAA 1955, 1965; PGA Cup 1982; USGA Women’s Mid-Amateur 2004; Tennessee PGA 1981, 2007, 2014).
Knoxville News Sentinel (archive). Jesse Smithey, “Practice facilities at Holston Hills Country Club get upgrade,” June 9, 2012—documents 2006 bunker-restoration by Bruce Hepner/MacCurrach and 2012 practice-facility project.
The Fried Egg. “Pristine Donald Ross: Holston Hills”—notes 1997 Renaissance/Doak restoration and McConnell Golf’s 2016 purchase.
PGA TOUR / Korn Ferry Tour. “Visit Knoxville Open to be hosted at Holston Hills Country Club through 2030,” news release, Nov. 12, 2024.
McConnell Golf (club site “About”). Club history and 2024 renovation framing; ownership information.
Club & Resort Business. “Bunker renovation elevates the golf experience at Tennessee club,” Nov. 22, 2024—trade coverage of 2024 bunker program under Kris Spence.
Bradley S. Klein, interview at GolfClubAtlas (July 2001). Commentary on Holston Hills’ strengths; possible Mashburn Brothers role (noted as inference).