Mark Wiedmer
Sweetens Cove Golf Course designer, builder and co-owner Rob Collins tees off at the South Pittsburg nine-hole layout in October 2014.One month and one day ago today, Rob Collins was wrapping up an afternoon of golf at his Sweetens Cove course when one of the new co-owners, Mark Rivers, suggested Collins accompany him and another new partner or two to the Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Chattanooga.
Shortly after Collins arrived at the high-dollar restaurant near Hamilton Place mall, Rivers told him to turn around to meet the fifth new owner of the only nine-hole course to make GolfWeek’s Top 100, with the South Pittsburg tract coming in at No. 50.
When Collins pivoted, there stood Peyton Manning.
“It definitely surprised me,” said Collins, who grew up in Chattanooga and is an alumnus of McCallie and Sewanee. “It was unbelievable. A really cool moment. When we first started this place, we used to talk about who would be the ideal person to be involved, and we always settled on Peyton.”
Manning isn’t the only easily recognizable name to buy into the remarkable public course Collins opened in 2014. Former tennis great Andy Roddick is also among the five financiers, led by Rivers, who are joining Collins in this grand experiment to see if the “little golf course that could” – as the New York Times once called it – can grow even bigger and more famous than it already is without the benefit of so much as a single plumbed bathroom.