Nine Holes in the Old Forest

Ten minutes from downtown, Poplar opens into Overton Park and the fairways begin among trees that were here before the course was a gleam. Built in 1906, this is called the longest continuously operating public course in the country. In 2021 it was remade—stone bridges, bunker mounds, a routing that treats the old forest as the architect. Par 34. Two thousand two hundred seventy-five yards. Tee shots from a pitch to a short par four. It will not humble a plus-handicap with length. It will humble anyone who cannot hit a shaped iron among timber, or who thought a nine-hole municipal could not be beautiful. Reviews speak of country-club mounds on a city ticket.

The Abe Goodman Clubhouse, renovated, holds a shop, concessions, a covered patio. Open early to evening. You can play before work. You can play after. Midtown is the neighborhood: the zoo a walk away, the Brooks, the Greensward, Cooper-Young a few minutes south, the medical district east. This is golf as a Memphis hour, not as a pilgrimage.

Difficulty is precision and trees, not yardage. Best seasons are October, when the canopy turns, and April, when the park greens before the humidity. Summer shade is the course’s ally. Winter the bones of the forest show and the nine can still be walked in a coat.

The grace is uniqueness and beauty inside ten minutes of the fountain. The graceful limitation is the nine itself. You will want eighteen some days. You will share the park with the city. Come late afternoon in fall. Choose Mirimichi if you wanted a full examination. Choose Overton Park 9 if you wanted the most Memphis golf there is, short enough to keep, handsome enough to remember.

Citywide Spotlight awards Overton Park 9 the fifth Outdoor Diamond because locality and visual awe finally outweigh championship length. No other course on this list is this close to the city’s heart or this entangled with a forest the city already loves. That is the amenity of 2080 Poplar: nine holes, old trees, a patio when you are done, and downtown still waiting when you are ready to return.