Brainerd Golf Course

Brainerd began as a private club scheme. In February 1924 the Chattanooga Times reported that H. H. Eager, president of the Brainerd Development Company, was planning the Brainerd Golf and Country Club east of the old Crabtree home place, with about 60 members already accepted. Wilbur Oakes of the Chattanooga Golf and Country Club laid out possible hole sites, and an architect "of national reputation" was to be hired to plan the course among new houses. That club did not go ahead. By May 1925 the same ground was being considered for a municipal course, an idea the city credits to Commissioner Eugene Bryan.

Ross's office handled the job. Chattanooga Daily Times reports from May 1925 through 1926, collected by the researcher Sven Nilsen, describe Walter B. Hatch visiting to judge the site and then acting for the Donald Ross company through planning and construction. The city's centennial release says Ross worked with Hatch and with construction manager Lawrence Hughes, a Ross builder who also helped finish Tate Springs near Knoxville. Ross's drawings for all 18 holes, titled simply "Chattanooga" and drawn on grids of five-yard squares, survive in the Tufts Archives. Whether Ross himself came to the site is not settled: no contemporary report found by Nilsen places him there, while longtime player Richard Keene understood that Ross drew the whole course but visited only while the nine that is now the front was being built.

The course opened on October 3, 1926, with a 50-cent green fee. A February 1927 Chattanooga Times story said it "was constructed by the Donald Ross company" and that "the long, slightly rolling fairways are artistically punctuated with natural and artificial hazards and lined on both sides with shady trees." Over that winter the city built the stucco clubhouse designed by Chattanooga architect Clarence Jones, and the first professional was to be Allan Langstaff. The course has been city-owned ever since.

Holes to Know

From the Blue tees Brainerd is par 36-36 over 6,470 yards: 3,323 out and 3,147 in, with four par 3s, ten par 4s and four par 5s. Each nine has two par 3s and two par 5s, and the round ends on the shortest of the par 5s, the 466-yard 18th, which is stroke index 2. The nines are reversed from Ross's plan, so today's 1st was his 10th.

The 420-yard 1st from the Blue tees is the longest par 4 and stroke index 1. Houses and trees line its left side, the fairway bends gently left, and a drainage channel crosses it on a diagonal about 290 yards out.

The 505-yard 4th from the Blue tees was Ross's 13th. Its fairway bunkers sit late, one on the right at about 345 yards and a pair at about 380, and Will Bardwell's comparison with the plan found them, and the green, where Ross put them.

The 383-yard 5th from the Blue tees, Ross's 14th, is the hole Bardwell singled out as adhering most closely to the plan: a green set slightly above the fairway, bunkered front left and front right, with an upper tier falling to a lower one that tilts back toward the player.

The 324-yard 7th from the Blue tees, Ross's 16th, has the smallest green on the course, perched above the fairway with a steep bank to the right. Five bunkers guard the last 50 yards of the approach.

The 311-yard 11th from the Blue tees, Ross's 2nd, is the shortest par 4 and has no bunkers; a pond sits short and right of the green.

Ross's Design Here

Bardwell's 2021 comparison of the blueprints with the ground found that most of the changes are on the edges of the property and that the green complexes and bunkering in its core are closest to Ross's plan. The 5th is the clearest case. Its green and front bunkers match the drawing, and the only apparent addition is a small bunker behind the front-left one.

At the 7th, Ross's plan marks the rocky slope to the right of the green as a "gravel pit." The green still sits high on its ridge, and Ross's own bunkers are still there. Keene says the bunkers, the green surrounds and the fairway on the old 16th are unchanged. At the 4th, Ross's fairway bunkers and green remain. Keene also points to the 8th, where the sinkhole beside the hole is the borrow pit that supplied soil for the tees and greens, and to the way the old bunkers sit a few feet off the putting surfaces, set into the sides of the green complexes.

Craig LeVasseur, who overlaid the drawings on today's course for a digital restoration in 2023, found that every original green site is still in use, though the greens have shrunk into small ovals. He also found that the plan used only a small number of fairway bunkers. At the 9th, which was Ross's closing hole, Bardwell found the shaping of the green close to the drawing.

Historical Significance

Brainerd was the fourth course to open in the immediate Chattanooga area, after Chattanooga, Signal Mountain and Lookout Mountain's Fairyland course, which opened a year earlier. It has been the city's public course for a century. In its 2026 centennial release, the city called it one of Ross's few full-scale urban municipal projects.

The Brainerd Invitational, a 36-hole amateur event, is one of the longest-running invitationals in Tennessee; its 80th edition was held in summer 2026. Keoni Vidrine won in 2025 with 131. Richard Keene, who learned the game at Brainerd and was perhaps the top local junior in the mid-1970s, holds the record of five Invitational wins. Gibby Gilbert, runner-up at the 1980 Masters, grew up playing the course and later managed it.

In July 2026 the Chattanooga District Golf Association moved its Men's Metro championship to Brainerd to mark the centennial, with the 4th and 18th played as par 4s for a par of 70. Blaine Woodruff closed with a 61, including 27 on the back nine, and beat two-time defending champion Andrew Weathers in a playoff. On October 3, 2026, the city marked 100 years with a two-person scramble at the original 50-cent fee.

Brainerd has also drawn attention as a restoration candidate. Bardwell argued in 2021 that restoring it to Ross's plans would make it a destination, LeVasseur built that restoration digitally, and it is playable in PGA 2K23 as "Chattanooga Muni."

Changes Since Ross

Brainerd has been renovated twice, in 1953 and 1983; LeVasseur names Alex McKay for the first and G. R. Baiard for the second. Bardwell found that 1950s photographs show the first renovation muddling the 5th's front-left bunker, which the 1983 work brought back closer to Ross's shape. The 1983 work removed the two fairway bunkers Ross drew on the 3rd and put a small pot bunker by the green. It also added three small bunkers in front of the 7th green, and the 4th gained a greenside bunker in the 1980s. The 9th green kept its shaping but lost its bunkers. Across the course the greens have shrunk and the bunker edges have worn.

The nines were reversed at some point, and today's 10th and 11th, Ross's 1st and 2nd, were moved slightly to keep balls away from neighbouring houses. LeVasseur found that the pond on the 11th is not on Ross's plan. After the 1973 flood, South Chickamauga Creek was moved farther from the course to control flooding, which left the course with irrigation problems to solve. Because the city has always owned it, Brainerd has kept the acreage and corridors Ross laid out.

Uncertainties

• Ross's personal role. The city's release says Ross designed the course with Hatch and Hughes, and Keene recalls a single Ross visit; Nilsen's reading of the 1925-27 newspapers finds only Hatch, acting for the Ross company. The listing credits Ross's office and his drawings and does not claim a visit.

• Renovation architects. Only LeVasseur names McKay for 1953 and Baiard for 1983; Bardwell gives the years without names. The text attributes the names to LeVasseur.

Sources & Notes

1. John Shearer, Chattanoogan.com, "Historic Brainerd Golf Course Still Enjoyed By Longtime Golfer Richard Keene", August 10, 2022. https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/8/10/453839/John-Shearer-Historic-Brainerd-Golf.aspx 1924 private-club plan; Eugene Bryan; February 1927 Chattanooga Times quote; Clarence Jones clubhouse; Allan Langstaff; Keene's account of Ross's visit, the 7th, 8th and moved 10th and 11th; 1973 flood; fourth area course; Gibby Gilbert.

2. City of Chattanooga Parks & Outdoors, "Brainerd Golf Course Celebrates 100 Years With Celebration And Tournament Oct. 3", September 30, 2026 (release published by Chattanoogan.com). https://www.chattanoogan.com/2026/9/30/524061/Brainerd-Golf-Course-Celebrates-100.aspx Opening October 3, 1926 and 50-cent fee; Bryan, Hatch, Hughes and Jones; 80th Invitational; Gilbert as past manager; urban municipal assessment.

3. Paul Payne, Chattanoogan.com, "Brainerd's Centennial Celebration Special For Keene", October 3, 2026. https://www.chattanoogan.com/2026/10/3/524207/Brainerds-Centennial-Celebration.aspx Centennial scramble; Keene's five Invitational wins; 80th Invitational.

4. Paul Payne, Chattanoogan.com, "Brainerd Hosts Men's Metro In Salute To Centennial Anniversary", July 8, 2026. https://new.chattanoogan.com/2026/7/8/520738/Brainerd-Hosts-Mens-Metro-In-Salute.aspx Men's Metro moved to Brainerd; par-70 setup with the 4th and 18th as par 4s.

5. Chattanoogan.com, "Woodruff Stages Historic Comeback To Win Men's Metro Title", July 11, 2026. https://new.chattanoogan.com/2026/7/11/520843/Woodruff-Stages-Historic-Comeback-To.aspx Woodruff's 61 and 27, playoff over Weathers.

6. Will Bardwell, Lying Four, "Brainerd: A Diminished Ross Design, Oozing with Potential", June 9, 2021. https://www.lyingfour.com/conversations-blog/2021/5/22/brainerd Blueprint comparison; 1953 and 1983 renovations; reversed nines; the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 9th; shrunken greens; restoration case.

7. Craig LeVasseur, Great Lakes Loops, "The Revival of Chattanooga Muni", February 22, 2023. https://greatlakesloops.substack.com/p/the-revival-of-chattanooga-muni Drawings titled "Chattanooga" on five-yard grids; McKay and Baiard; original hole numbers; green sites; pond on the 11th; PGA 2K23 restoration.

8. Sven Nilsen, Golf Club Atlas, "Reunderstanding Ross", replies of November 4, 2019 and January 6, 2020. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65481.msg1614369.html Chattanooga Daily Times clippings 1924-27; Hatch for the Ross company; no direct Ross link found.

9. Golf Club Atlas, "Brainerd Municipal Golf Course - 1925 - Donald Ross Chattanooga", April 2016. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,62899.0.html Tufts Archives holds drawings for all 18 holes.

10. Golf Club Atlas, "Holston Hills 'improvements'", reply of August 2, 2024. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,73099.msg1754440.html Lawrence Hughes built Brainerd in 1925 and helped finish Tate Springs.

11. City of Chattanooga, Brainerd Golf Course. https://chattanooga.gov/things-to-do/golf-courses/brainerd Facilities, fees, five-day booking, scorecard.

12. AmateurGolf.com, Brainerd Invitational. https://www.amateurgolf.com/amateur-golf-tournaments/8586/Brainerd-Invitational 2025 champion and format.

13. Brainerd Golf Course scorecard (pack, from the city's card). Tee sets, pars, yardages and stroke indexes.

14. Hole aerials: TDOT Aerial Surveys / TNMap, State of Tennessee STS GIS Services, via the Greens Visited course tour. Hazard positions in Holes to Know.