The toughest course in the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL combined area is The Honors Course, at slope 152 — ahead of Farm Golf Club The at slope 151 and Ooltewah Club at slope 144.
All 20 courses in the area with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees are ranked below, along with 5 more lists: hardest from the tips, longest, widest tee spread, oldest, highest above sea level.
Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL is a combined statistical area as the U.S. Office of Management and Budget delineates it, crossing Alabama and Georgia and Tennessee — the boundary is theirs, not ours. Each list counts only the courses in the area that publish that figure, so the totals differ between them. Slope and course rating measure difficulty, not quality — nothing here ranks how good a course is.
Toughest test
— all 20 courses with a USGA slope rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | State | Toughest test |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Honors Course | TN | slope 152 |
| 2 | Farm Golf Club The | GA | slope 151 |
| 3 | Ooltewah Club | TN | slope 144 |
| 4 | Council Fire Golf Club | TN | slope 139 |
| 5 | Mclemore Club The Keep | GA | slope 137 |
| 6 | Windstone Golf Country Club | GA | slope 135 |
| 7 | Nob North Golf Course | GA | slope 131 |
| 8 | Lookout Mountain Golf Club | GA | slope 128 |
| 9 | Chatata Valley Golf Club | TN | slope 126 |
| 9 | Spring Lakes Golf Club | GA | slope 126 |
| 11 | Brown Acres Golf Course | TN | slope 123 |
| 11 | Sweetens Cove Golf Club | TN | slope 123 |
| 13 | Battlefield Golf Club | GA | slope 122 |
| 14 | Brainerd Golf Course | TN | slope 121 |
| 15 | Moccasin Bend Golf Club | TN | slope 120 |
| 16 | Falcon Pointe Golf Club | TN | slope 119 |
| 16 | Trenton Golf Club | GA | slope 119 |
| 18 | High Point Golf Course | GA | slope 117 |
| 19 | Copper Basin Golf Club | TN | slope 109 |
| 20 | Concord Golf Club | TN | slope 88 |
The highest USGA slope rating published for any of the men’s tee sets. Slope rates difficulty for a bogey golfer relative to a scratch golfer — a rated figure issued by the golf association, not an opinion about the course. Men’s ratings only, because a tee is rated separately for men and for women and the two scales do not compare; a course rated only for women is not in the running rather than converted.
Hardest from the tips
— all 17 courses with a USGA course rating for its men’s tees
| # | Course | State | Hardest from the tips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Honors Course | TN | rating 76.8 |
| 2 | Ooltewah Club | TN | rating 75.7 |
| 3 | Mclemore Club The Keep | GA | rating 75.5 |
| 4 | Farm Golf Club The | GA | rating 75.1 |
| 5 | Chatata Valley Golf Club | TN | rating 74.1 |
| 6 | Council Fire Golf Club | TN | rating 73.9 |
| 7 | Nob North Golf Course | GA | rating 72.3 |
| 8 | Windstone Golf Country Club | GA | rating 72.2 |
| 9 | Brown Acres Golf Course | TN | rating 72.1 |
| 10 | Lookout Mountain Golf Club | GA | rating 72.0 |
| 11 | Brainerd Golf Course | TN | rating 71.2 |
| 12 | Battlefield Golf Club | GA | rating 71.0 |
| 13 | Spring Lakes Golf Club | GA | rating 70.8 |
| 14 | Moccasin Bend Golf Club | TN | rating 70.4 |
| 15 | Falcon Pointe Golf Club | TN | rating 69.9 |
| 16 | Trenton Golf Club | GA | rating 68.9 |
| 17 | Concord Golf Club | TN | rating 60.9 |
The highest USGA course rating published for any of the men’s tee sets — the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Men’s ratings only, for the same reason as slope: the men’s and women’s ratings of one tee are different measurements. It measures difficulty and nothing else; it is not a quality score and never orders these pages by how good a course is.
Longest
— all 23 courses with a published scorecard
| # | Course | State | Longest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mclemore Club The Keep | GA | 7,722 yds |
| 2 | The Honors Course | TN | 7,450 yds |
| 3 | Ooltewah Club | TN | 7,195 yds |
| 4 | Farm Golf Club The | GA | 7,180 yds |
| 5 | Chatata Valley Golf Club | TN | 7,089 yds |
| 6 | Council Fire Golf Club | TN | 6,999 yds |
| 7 | Battlefield Golf Club | GA | 6,807 yds |
| 8 | Brown Acres Golf Course | TN | 6,742 yds |
| 9 | Dalton Golf Country Club | GA | 6,659 yds |
| 10 | Windstone Golf Country Club | GA | 6,627 yds |
| 11 | Lookout Mountain Golf Club | GA | 6,613 yds |
| 12 | Nob North Golf Course | GA | 6,608 yds |
| 13 | Brainerd Golf Course | TN | 6,470 yds |
| 14 | Moccasin Bend Golf Club | TN | 6,469 yds |
| 15 | Lafayette Municipal Golf Course | GA | 6,436 yds |
| 16 | Trenton Golf Club | GA | 6,405 yds |
| 17 | Spring Lakes Golf Club | GA | 6,320 yds |
| 18 | Falcon Pointe Golf Club | TN | 6,197 yds |
| 19 | Concord Golf Club | TN | 4,369 yds |
| 20 | Tunnel Hill Golf Course | GA | 3,329 yds |
| 21 | Sweetens Cove Golf Club | TN | 3,301 yds |
| 22 | Copper Basin Golf Club | TN | 2,639 yds |
| 23 | High Point Golf Course | GA | 2,101 yds |
The longest tee set the course publishes, in yards from the tips. Compared against every course that publishes a scorecard — length is a measurement, not a verdict on the golf.
Widest tee spread
— all 23 courses with two or more tee sets of different lengths
| # | Course | State | Widest tee spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Council Fire Golf Club | TN | 2,978 yds between tees |
| 2 | Mclemore Club The Keep | GA | 2,879 yds between tees |
| 3 | Windstone Golf Country Club | GA | 1,958 yds between tees |
| 4 | Ooltewah Club | TN | 1,885 yds between tees |
| 5 | Farm Golf Club The | GA | 1,879 yds between tees |
| 6 | Brown Acres Golf Course | TN | 1,808 yds between tees |
| 7 | Chatata Valley Golf Club | TN | 1,759 yds between tees |
| 8 | Battlefield Golf Club | GA | 1,617 yds between tees |
| 9 | Lookout Mountain Golf Club | GA | 1,590 yds between tees |
| 10 | Falcon Pointe Golf Club | TN | 1,519 yds between tees |
| 11 | Brainerd Golf Course | TN | 1,508 yds between tees |
| 11 | Spring Lakes Golf Club | GA | 1,508 yds between tees |
| 13 | Trenton Golf Club | GA | 1,497 yds between tees |
| 14 | Dalton Golf Country Club | GA | 1,475 yds between tees |
| 15 | The Honors Course | TN | 1,450 yds between tees |
| 16 | Nob North Golf Course | GA | 1,419 yds between tees |
| 17 | Moccasin Bend Golf Club | TN | 1,239 yds between tees |
| 18 | Lafayette Municipal Golf Course | GA | 1,041 yds between tees |
| 19 | Sweetens Cove Golf Club | TN | 1,029 yds between tees |
| 20 | Concord Golf Club | TN | 593 yds between tees |
| 21 | Tunnel Hill Golf Course | GA | 500 yds between tees |
| 22 | Copper Basin Golf Club | TN | 486 yds between tees |
| 23 | High Point Golf Course | GA | 101 yds between tees |
Yards between the longest and shortest published tee sets — how far the course moves to fit a different player. Courses publishing a single tee set are not in the running, because one set is an unmeasured spread rather than a narrow one.
Oldest
— all 21 courses with an opening year
| # | Course | State | Oldest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Copper Basin Golf Club | TN | opened 1921 |
| 2 | Lookout Mountain Golf Club | GA | opened 1925 |
| 3 | Brainerd Golf Course | TN | opened 1926 |
| 4 | Sweetens Cove Golf Club | TN | opened 1951 |
| 5 | Falcon Pointe Golf Club | TN | opened 1954 |
| 6 | Tunnel Hill Golf Course | GA | opened 1961 |
| 7 | Moccasin Bend Golf Club | TN | opened 1966 |
| 8 | Concord Golf Club | TN | opened 1968 |
| 9 | Battlefield Golf Club | GA | opened 1970 |
| 9 | Spring Lakes Golf Club | GA | opened 1970 |
| 11 | Brown Acres Golf Course | TN | opened 1971 |
| 12 | High Point Golf Course | GA | opened 1974 |
| 13 | Nob North Golf Course | GA | opened 1978 |
| 14 | The Honors Course | TN | opened 1983 |
| 15 | Farm Golf Club The | GA | opened 1988 |
| 16 | Windstone Golf Country Club | GA | opened 1989 |
| 17 | Council Fire Golf Club | TN | opened 1992 |
| 18 | Chatata Valley Golf Club | TN | opened 1993 |
| 19 | Trenton Golf Club | GA | opened 1994 |
| 20 | Ooltewah Club | TN | opened 1999 |
| 21 | Mclemore Club The Keep | GA | opened 2024 |
The year the course opened, as published. Ranked oldest first. An opening year is not a design credit and not a renovation date — a course that opened in 1921 and was rebuilt in 1998 still opened in 1921.
Highest above sea level
— all 23 courses with a coordinate we could sample
| # | Course | State | Highest above sea level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mclemore Club The Keep | GA | 2,127 ft |
| 2 | Copper Basin Golf Club | TN | 1,843 ft |
| 3 | Lookout Mountain Golf Club | GA | 1,704 ft |
| 4 | Trenton Golf Club | GA | 1,020 ft |
| 5 | Farm Golf Club The | GA | 906 ft |
| 6 | Windstone Golf Country Club | GA | 879 ft |
| 7 | Falcon Pointe Golf Club | TN | 863 ft |
| 8 | Nob North Golf Course | GA | 852 ft |
| 9 | Tunnel Hill Golf Course | GA | 835 ft |
| 10 | The Honors Course | TN | 826 ft |
| 11 | Chatata Valley Golf Club | TN | 799 ft |
| 12 | Lafayette Municipal Golf Course | GA | 797 ft |
| 13 | High Point Golf Course | GA | 749 ft |
| 14 | Dalton Golf Country Club | GA | 729 ft |
| 15 | Spring Lakes Golf Club | GA | 726 ft |
| 16 | Ooltewah Club | TN | 701 ft |
| 17 | Battlefield Golf Club | GA | 696 ft |
| 17 | Concord Golf Club | TN | 696 ft |
| 19 | Council Fire Golf Club | TN | 689 ft |
| 20 | Brown Acres Golf Course | TN | 685 ft |
| 21 | Brainerd Golf Course | TN | 667 ft |
| 22 | Moccasin Bend Golf Club | TN | 659 ft |
| 23 | Sweetens Cove Golf Club | TN | 645 ft |
Height above sea level at the course’s own published coordinate, sampled from the USGS 3DEP elevation model. THIS IS A FIGURE WE DERIVED, not one the course publishes — anybody can re-query the same public dataset at the same coordinate and get the same number, but no scorecard states it. Because every course carries a coordinate, this is the only board here whose field is nearly the whole database rather than the courses that publish a particular figure. Elevation changes how far a ball carries; it says nothing about whether a course is good.