Sequoyah National Golf Club

Sequoyah National Golf Club is Robert Trent Jones II's 2009 championship design in Cherokee, North Carolina, 45 minutes west of Asheville in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. The course is owned and operated by the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, and four-time PGA Tour winner Notah Begay III (Navajo/Pueblo heritage) contributed to the routing alongside RTJ II's design team. At 6,600 yards par 72, Sequoyah plays through oak, fir, and wildflower valleys typical of the southern Appalachians. Zoysia fairways and bent-grass greens hold up through the mountain summer, and the routing takes full advantage of the elevation and Smoky Mountain backdrops, panoramic vistas show up repeatedly, and several holes play downhill through tree-lined corridors that open to sweeping valley views. Jones II built the course to fit the terrain rather than impose a design template. Sequoyah National is one of the more geographically dramatic casino-resort courses in the Southeast, owned by a Native American nation with a designer tied to Native American golf (Begay), set in a location most golfers don't associate with championship golf. Pair it with Omni Grove Park Inn (Ross 1926 restoration) and Linville Ridge for a western North Carolina mountain trip that spans historic Ross to modern RTJ II.