King-Collins building Nashville course on ‘remote’ site near downtown
By: Ran Morrissett February 1, 2023
The Bounty Club site offers views of the Nashville skyline.
Seth Kupersmith
King-Collins Golf Course Design, which first caught the attention of golfers with its work in Sweetens Cove, Tennessee, announced on Wednesday that it was building another course in the Volunteers State, just outside exterior of Nashville, which is expected to begin construction this spring.
The course (whose ownership group includes GOLF.com’s parent company, 8AM Golf) will be in a private facility called Bounty Club and will offer unrestricted 15-mile views of the city skyline.
“A little over a year ago we first saw the property and were immediately taken with its potential,” King-Collins lead designer Rob Collins wrote in an Instagram post. “Boasting centuries-old wet and dry creeks and gently rolling terrain, it’s almost impossible to believe that this seemingly remote site is only thirteen (13) minutes from downtown Nashville!”
King-Collins has embraced the design-build movement in which Collins and his partner, Tad King, serve as both architects and builders of the course. The advantages of such a model include cost savings and the permanent presence of the best talent on site. King-Collins used the same system in Landmand, northeast Nebraska, where they needed to remove dynamic landforms to create a stellar golf course, and Red Feather in Lubbock, Texas, where they created holes from nothing.
At Bounty Club, King-Collins has been given an abundance of natural features to work with, including a 250-foot hill on which a farmhouse-style lodge will tower over the property. The route will start and end halfway up the hill, but most of it will weave through open grasslands and wet and dry streams that run through the hilly site.
When I walked the course with Collins and King on a recent visit, I counted a stream and/or a natural ditch on 12 holes. Figuring out how to use these landforms and slopes to their advantage will be an endless puzzle for Collins and King. The team will add bunkering but the natural features will be the stars.
The design will be ideal for match play, in part because of the many ½ par holes. For example, the par-5 1st tee is lowered into the hillside and offers stunning views with the fairway tumbling around 30 feet below. A good drive makes the open-mouthed green accessible in two.
The natural features of Bounty Club will be the stars of the property. Seth Kupersmith (both)
Another favorite King and Collins hole is the 2nd, where the green sits in a “V” formed by the intersection of two streams. “How can you expect more?” Collins told me on our walk. “What a perfectly natural green site that will ask very little of us.” Collins is originally from Tennessee and since his success at Sweetens Cove, he has been traveling the state in search of another favorable site.
The rest of the first nine edges around the meadow before heading to higher ground on holes 6 and 7. The designers cleverly decided not to flip the nines, which allowed them to take advantage of all 350 acres and more and make the route a delight for walking.
King said the owners group’s decision to sand down the property will ensure bouncy playing conditions throughout. On some of the downhill holes like the 255-yard 10th, golfers will be looking to land their balls 10, maybe 15, yards from the putting surface to release them onto the open green. Shots like these golfers never tire of.
King-Collins may have saved the best for last. The 15 is a slightly uphill two-shot killer to another verdant natural spot by a dry creek. The shortest par-3 (135 yards) comes in at 16, followed by the shortest par-4 (315 yards) at 17. Both will produce fireworks. The home hole, a par-5 with multiple lanes to consider from the tee and back into the green, will be ideal for settling close matches.
Even in its early stages, the course will look surprisingly mature as many design elements are nature-based. And it is this natural atmosphere that will be at the heart of the attraction of the Bounty Club. It will give you the best of both worlds: a tranquil ride in which you are cocooned in the middle of nature and yet with a bustling city just a short drive away.