Interview With Keith Hickman Golf Professional/Manager Tennessee Golf Trail @ Paris Landing

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Keith Hickman, the Golf Professional/Manager at Tennessee Golf Trail @ Paris Landing. The following are a few traditional and non traditional golf centric questions that I love to ask influential people in the golf industry.

Can you provide our readers a brief biography?
I've been in the golf business for more than 5o years. I have a turf degree from the University of Tennessee/Knoxville & have been a PGA member for 26 years. I just started my 39th year as the head professional here at Paris Landing

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
I was introduced to golf when I started working at a golf facility at the age of 14.

What is your current home course?
The Tennessee Golf Trail @ Paris Landing

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
All the improvements we've made here at the course over the past 39 years. We've re-built 3 greens, re-grassed all the greens & added a few bunkers. Also being a PGA member for 25 years.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
People not following the rules: cart paths only, slow play & just all-around poor golf etiquette

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
8-Iron, I just have the most confidence with it.

What is your favorite golf destination?
St. Andrews. I was fortunate enough to get to play it one time. The small quaint town of St. Andrews on the sea is incredible

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
Augusta National but I would settle for Pebble Beach

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
St. Andrews

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
Try to make the rules of golf easier for the average golfer to understand

Dream foursome (living)?
My Dad, Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods & myself

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
Old Tom Morris, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus

Favorite 19th hole drink?
Water with Lemon

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt?
Long Drive

2) Having Round of Life OR Hole in One?
Hole in One

3) Golfing at the crack of dawn OR twilight?
Dawn

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
Draw

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Cart

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bushes, I'm a county boy

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Hot Dog

8) Around the green, being in sand OR thick rough?
Around green

9) Walking OR riding?
Riding

10) Do you carry traditional 3 iron OR hybrid?
Hybrid

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
long par 5

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Shorts

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Toss up: I respect both of them for what they did for golf

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Beatles

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
small amount of money

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
whatever it takes

17) Lay up OR gamble?
gamble

18) 18 holes OR 36?
18

Revised: 03/17/2025 - Article Viewed 61 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.