Golf in Newport

Newport is the seat of Cocke County, a small city on the Pigeon River where the French Broad River confluence creates the headwaters of what becomes the Nolichucky system downstream. The Pigeon River runs west from the North Carolina mountains through a gorge that is simultaneously one of East Tennessee's most scenic natural corridors and one of its more industrially compromised — a paper mill upstream for most of the 20th century created environmental impacts that have only partially healed since its closure. Newport's position on U.S. Highway 70 at the foot of the Great Smokies makes it a gateway community for visitors entering the park from the north, and the Cosby entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies nearby. The surrounding Cocke County landscape is rugged East Tennessee hill country, and golf here serves a small city with a broad rural county.