Alabama Is the Best Choice for Year-Round Golfing
Did you know that in Alabama you can play golf year-round?
Alabama on average has 215 days of sunshine, which makes it the perfect atmosphere for hitting the links almost anytime throughout the year. Novices and avid golfers can choose from more than 200 first-class golf courses throughout the state. Some of the most serene courses can be found in the award-winning Robert Trent Jones Trail which includes 11 sites with a total of 26 courses scattered throughout Alabama.
The RTJ Trail offers some of the most challenging courses in the world yet each one offers serene and scenic views of all the best Alabama has to offer.
Renovated in 2008, The Highlands course has been restored to its original Scottish links design. Completely opposite in design is the River course, the only Robert Trent Jones layout without a single bunker. On one hand, the Highlands course is one of the gems of the Trail with finishing holes that are scenic and challenging. Highlands also has one of the most recognizable landmarks on the Trail, the old mule barn beside the fifth hole. On the other hand, The River course is laid out on former soybean fields in the flood plain of the Flint River. With water on 16 of the 18 holes, the River course will challenge your shot-making ability. The Short Course is open and links-like, with water in play on 11 holes and a large double green accommodating the 10th and 17th greens. Alternating tees allow golfers to hit every club in their bag. This course is open year-round except for Christmas Day.
This RTJ Golf Trail at The Shoals has two 18-hole championship courses that lie between the Wheeler and Wilson dams on the Tennessee River. The Fighting Joe course at The Shoals was the first Trail course to break 8,000 yards. Travel + Leisure Golf named Fighting Joe one of the top new courses in the early 2000s. The second course, the Schoolmaster (named for President Woodrow Wilson who was responsible for getting Wilson Dam built and was also known as "The Schoolmaster" of politics), opened in the Summer of 2005. The award-winning Marriott Shoals in Florence is the sister hotel for this course. Check out their website for summer and winter hours.
The Silver Lakes - Anniston/Gadsden
Surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains and Lee Lake, this course offers 36 holes of scenic forests, wetlands, grasslands and dramatic elevation changes throughout the trail. The Heartbreaker, Backbreaker, Mindbreaker and The Short course provide challenging and scenic varieties of holes to play as well as one of the best Champion Ultradwarf putting services within the Robert Trent Jones Trail. This course is open daily.
This course is located 15 minutes north of Montgomery’s Capitol Hill and features three 18-hole championship courses. With more than 1,500 acres of golf and nature, the pure magnitude of this facility is amazing and allows each course to be drastically different from the others. The Senator Course is a treeless, Irish links-style layout; The Legislator Course is a more traditional layout reminiscent of Pinehurst and The Judge Course has spectacular views of the Alabama River from the first hole and The Senator Course was an annual site for an LPGA event for a decade. The Marriott Hotel is onsite as well as unique golf villas. This course is open year-round.
Grand National - Auburn/Opelika
Robert Trent Jones, Sr. considered this the best site he had ever seen for building a golf course. Built on 600-acre Lake Saugahatchee, 32 of the 54 holes skirt its shores. National Village, a golfing community on the Trail, is adjacent to these courses and the on-site Marriott Grand National Hotel, Spa and Conference Center. Grand National is the host of the PGA TOUR's Barbasol Championship each summer and has hosted these events over the years: Nike Tour Championship, LPGA Tour of Champions, NCAA Men's Division I National Championship, and NCAA Women's Division 1 National Championship, 2004.
In south Alabama, golfers will find the newly renovated courses at Magnolia Grove. The scenic backdrop of Magnolia Grove features creeks, marshland, lakes and 54 holes carved throughout the indigenous hardwood and pine. This course is "player friendly" but has kept the integrity of Robert Trent Jones' original design. Magnolia Grove was recently named one of the "Top 50 Public Courses" by Golf World Magazine readers. The Crossings and Falls courses are also listed in Golf Digest's "Places to Play" as two of the nation's great value courses and as "America's Top 50 Affordable Courses." The site hosted an LPGA event for many years, including the Tournament of Champions from 1999-2003. Check their website for hours of operation.