The setting is something really special. Some great water obstacles and great opportunities for beautiful holes.

I played on a February Saturday with near 60 degree weather, no wind, and skies so clear that you could see the Smokies from anywhere in Knoxville, and there were still only 8ish groups playing on the course. We didn't have anyone slowing us down in front of us, and no one hurrying us from behind.

A huge space to maintain, and it is in fact maintained excellently.

The best basket brand out there. Without the numbered baskets we would have quit this course.

Course layout, course layout, course layout. As mentioned, hole 6 is something terrible. It's gimmicky, super short, and as the only really "wooded" hole on the course it doesn't fit in at all. I had a big issue with 9 and 10. Their tees are right next to each other, and go in opposite directions. For holes 2, 3, and 4, fairways shared some overlap. One of our players, in the fairway for 2, was almost hit by a drive from 3 (and it wasn't a terrible drive by the guy from 3)

I had a huge problem with tee signage. I found that MOST of the time the different colored tees were not at all where they were marked on the tee sign (number 2 is laughably wrong). Sometimes near the basket the course would tell you where to go for the next tee. That was a welcome occasion, but not the norm.

The tees themselves had major issues. The tees for 7 and 8 are all in the same area, kind of confusing (bad bad flow from 7 to 8, have to backtrack on nearly all of 7 to get to hole 8's blue). Some of the tees for hole 16 were in the middle of the fairway for hole 14, hole 11 and twelve's tees were really scattered.

The baskets were typically very far away from the next tee. Transition time is boring, if a course is designed well you should not be walking 150 feet or more to get to the next tee every hole.

I don't think a course ever needs 4 tees. Three would suffice here, being less cluttered, more definable as beginner, intermediate, advanced, and cheaper to eventually build those concrete pads out of. The reds are too easy here anyway, anyone who feels like those fit them best would probably have more fun on a course that requires less walking.

Overall plenty of potential for this course with its location, but I constantly found problems with execution and design throughout my visit. Victor Ashe has a lot of similarities in size to this course, and is easily my pick of the two for the Knoxville area.