For reservations outside of 7 Days, please contact: Toll-free: 1-800-949-4444, option 2 Local: 205-942-0444 Email: ReservationsRequest@RTJGolf.com But the fact is, these watery Trail holes tend to be stunners when each is considered on its own. From 18th-century taverns to a trip through golf's modern era, there's a great deal to mark the passage of time. On the Lake Course, more than half of the holes hug Lake Saugahatchee, and the vistas on its routing cant be beat. The centerpiece here is the 600 acre Lake Saugahatchee where 32 of the 54 holes are draped along its filigreed shores. Its so pretty, with all the water and waterfalls, and a pretty great way to wrap the day , If you didnt still have to drive another 85 miles, of course. Yellow grasses danced in the wind as we weighed our options: get to the next hotel early and hang out, or play more golf. At 8,191 yards, it is one of the longest courses in the world. Day 4: If you are physically able to roll out of bed after whatever BBQ feast you enjoyed last night, you should. 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. 7 a.m. - 10 p.m. One small error. If I told my wife I was going to Alabama to play 26 golf courses for close to 4 weeks, I would have a problem. Maybe 36 holes isnt enough. However it gets set up, in whichever order you play the nines, youll roll over to the airport with a big smile on your face and plenty of stories to tell when you get back home. It plays 358 off the back to an uphill green, and after fighting for pars most of the day, my birdie there put me back on the proper side of the ledger against Matin. Turns out there are no less than 45 BBQ joints in Huntsville. The Trail Guide is the official guide to the award-winning Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Architect Perry Maxwell opened the first 18-hole course in the region at The Lakewood Club back in 1944. A fixture among the top 10 on our Best in . The best female players in the world get their crack at the famed California course. Theyre everywhere. Didnt matter. That was an easy call. 9 and No. The good news is, Huntsville might have the most fantastic BBQ per capita of any city in America and plenty of lodging options among the hotel chains (including a Courtyard by Marriott) to fit whatever budget. The best times to visit this trail are March through October. The Lake Course at Grand National in Opelika, Alabama, part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail (Courtesy of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail/Michael Clemmer) David Bronner,. The first four holes on Dogwood are all intriguing nail-biters, and just when you think the round simplifies, the tension ratchets back up at 8 and 9 with more water and more tricky golf shots. Have you noticed that? CONTACT RTJ RESERVATIONS Give us a call or send us an email. Despite its modest length, this stalwart PGA Tour venue defends itself well against the world's best golfers while remaining fun for the rest of us. Then after an overnight at Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa, play the Schoolmaster, a tree-lined challenge tucked along the Tennessee River. The Trail started with 378 holes at eight locations and has grown to 468 holes at eleven sites and runs for over 300 miles from the Tennessee state line south to Mobile Bay. No. Our idiotic attempt to play one of the worlds longest courses in the freezing wind and rain proved nothing if not this: Pick the right tees. The Schoolmaster is a bit easier to play, but they're both accessible for all levels of golfers. The concept has only grown since its introduction in the 1980s. (Why couldnt he have stayed asleep for my next shot?). Look at all the beautiful courses Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has for you and your friends to play at. General Manager Alex Franseen. Change for golf, take the elevator down to the pro shop and step out with enthusiasm onto the first tee of Ross Bridge. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek). The Canyon Nine does a good job of faking you out over the first four holes in terms of hiding its beauty. Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is the largest golf course construction project ever attempted. One of the nines is a par 3, but Canyon, Sherling and Loblolly nines will provide you with all the golf you can handle in an aesthetic setting. Famed course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. and his team of designers which included much lead detail work by Roger Rulewich reshaped Alabama into a prime golf destination with initial plans that included 378 holes at eight sites across the state. Trail There are a lot of golf courses around the world. There are many great hotels associated with the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. All rights reserved. The tee box of the third hole shows you the drama youre in for, and from hole 4 to 8 youll be switching back and forth from clubs to camera for some of the most amazing golf shots, and probably digging a few extra balls out of your bag. Dogs are welcome and may be off-leash in some areas. Picking a "best of" list among the 11 sites throughout Alabama on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is a tough task. By the time you reach that shared ninth green, youll be winded, even if youre riding in a cart, and probably wishing you could play that nine again. About the only thing missing from the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is the No. 2 spot in Alabama in 2021. 13 to dash over to play the closer in the near darkness. The concept of building a trail of golf courses was the brainchild of Dr. David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama who created and executed it to effectively diversify the assets of the states pension fund and economically benefit the State of Alabama. If youve fancied your Renaissance stays the past two nights, you can continue the trend in downtown Montgomery at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa. In fact, the only thing lost that day was Matins press on the 18th hole, which put me ahead for the whole trip. Extensive multimillion-dollar remodeling jobs have upgraded both the Crossings and Falls Courses within the past five years. You can wrap up a long day of golf with a serving of sausage in your shrimp and grits. But I wouldnt recommend such an adventure to anyone. This is a popular trail for birding, road biking, and bike touring, but you can still enjoy some solitude during quieter times of day. Eight of the top 10 courses on Golfweeks Best Courses You Can Play list of top public-access layouts in the state are part of the Trail. You can unpack! GOLFs 25-best par-3 courses in the world. How is that possible? Wide fairways, perfectly rolling terrain, great green complexes and chipping surrounds its completely understandable how Ross Bridge jumped to the No. It wasnt going to be pretty. On higher land with a Scottish links theme, the Senator is wide open, barely a tree in play. Listed below is a non-exhaustive selection of golf courses that are original designs by Jones, as well as re-designs of existing courses. The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is a collection of championship caliber golf courses, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., distributed across the state of Alabama, as part of investments by the Retirement Systems of Alabama.The Trail started with 378 holes at eight sites throughout the state, but has grown to 468 holes at eleven sites. Pick one of the other two, both listed by Golf Digest among Americas Top 50 Affordable Courses.. What more could anyone ask for? With the capital city in your rearview mirror, head east to Auburn, and the university that shares the citys name, to stroll the grounds of a proud SEC school. All in all, a great start to five days of golf: solid, fun and challenging, not a snoozer on the scorecard. Start point: RTJ Golf Trail at Magnolia Grove, Mobile, Ala. End point: RTJ Golf Trail at Grand National, Auburn, Ala. Hotels, restaurants, shops, merchandise the Trail is an enterprise-level effort that makes it easy to bounce from site to site, playing golf across multiple landscapes without ever leaving the Trail system. The Ridge Course is a rollercoaster with more than 150 feet of elevation changes and some amazing green complexes carved into remarkable limestone structures. Beautiful lakeside par 3s that belong in a painting? Magnolia Grove features two full-length golf courses and an 18-hole Short Course that Golf Digest once named as the best par-3 course in America. The Dogwood Course is one of my favorites on the entire Trail (especially the front nine), and in my opinion the much more challenging of the two at Lakewood Golf Club. Enjoy this 15.1-mile loop trail near Gunzenhausen, Bavaria. Retreat to the luxurious confines of your room or tower suite, (youll spend two nights here) and get some sleep. A new PING fairway wood, Therabody muscle-relaxing sleeves, Beckett Simonon shoes and Ashworth apparel highlight the June 2023 GolfPass Gear Report. If youre coming down, like we did, to play 22 courses in 12 days, you wont need to find more golf. No worries though. Write review . Highland Oaks, like Cambrian Ridge, has four nine-hole routings. Ive heard some say you should start with the Short Nine. Constant change, Ernie Els building his first Mexico course, in one of golf's fastest-growing markets, These 7 things make SoCal's Terranea Resort an ideal golf getaway for families, Looking for value-friendly golf? Wild mounding and turbulent green surfaces require every bit of your focus, and then, when you do get that beauty on the par-3 No. The eight Resort Collection hotels on the Trail all fly the Marriott or Renaissance flags and are top in their class for . This story begins there. The Sherling Nine doesnt take nearly as long to get dramatic. The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail tells how a bold, imaginative investment by a public employee pension fund turned into a world-class tourist attraction that helped change the image and boost the economy of an entire state. A single-digit handicapper and golf nut, Matin would help keep the focus on the core tenet of the Trail: more golf. If it were me, Id play The Falls today. February 20, 2023. If youre staying in Prattville, check out Uncle Micks Cajun Market & Caf or (for BBQ) Rocks or Fat Boys. The 18th is the shortest par 4 on the Judge and packs a lot into a small package. His philosophy is the stronger the Retirement Systems of Alabama can make Alabama, the stronger the Retirement Systems will be.. The 7,971-yard Schoolmaster Course rides elevation changes through pristine natural forest. Since opening in 1992, more than 12 million rounds of golf have been played on the Trail. With another 18 hole par 3, the Grove touts 2 remarkable 18 hole championship layouts-the Falls and the Crossings which are considerably different from each other. 15, with its green set on a peninsula above the water. We recommend playing the two full-length courses today if you can. All these top-ranked courses in the state are worthy, and altogether they make for an easy trip across the center of the state. With 468 holes spread across 11 sites throughout Alabama, picking a "best of" list along the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail remains a difficult proposition. Jason Scott Deegan has reviewed and photographed more than 1,000 courses and written about golf destinations in 20 countries for some of the industry's biggest publications. Weaving in and out of pine trees and down into a native cypress swamp, the golfer gets a little bit of everything in his or her game on The Legislator. Copyright 2023 GolfPass. The May 2011 issue of Golf Odyssey has been published and can be accessed here. A weekly roundup of Golf News from eSouthernGOLF, Caledonia and True Blue Rank in South Carolinas Top 5 Courses. You came here to golf. With 26 courses at 11 sites stretched across the state 468 holes in all the Trail pretty much dominates the golf scene in the state. But our own Jason Scott Deegan picked a top 5. Each course offers a slew of teeing grounds, and if youre looking to play from a yardage thats in between posted options, move up to the shorter boxes. I was half right. 2 Ross Bridge and No. Monday, February 13th, 2023 By Sam Prickett Since opening in 1992, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has boosted Alabama's sports tourism industry while simultaneously celebrating the state's natural beauty. 4 and the par-4 5th along the water, as well as the brilliant closing hole. The options, mostly excellent, are ludicrously endless. Ask which nine has the least play on it and go with that one first. Did I mention the Conecuh Sausage? Check out Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's 30 second TV commercial, 'Buy Now: $49.95' from the Sports industry. The resort added a three-story spa and upgraded its restaurants in 2018, and the hotel features 19 luxury suites. The shortish, uphill par-5 fourth was a favorite, offering several options both off the tee and from the fairway, with a multi-level green that easily can lead to one of the most frustrating terms in golf: three-putt par. There's really no bad choice, and 10 of the 11 have at least 36 holes. Id call Silver Lakes the little course that could if it werent so big. In that case, you can take advantage of the 54-hole golf steal at Oxmoor Valley Golf Club. While boasting of my feat (feast) to a local golfer, he just shook his head. I hope, for your sake, you are really good with your long irons, and that you catch the par-3 No. Share it with friends, then discover more great TV commercials on iSpot.tv. Grab a quick lunch then hit the road for your 2.5-hour drive to Highland Oaks in Dothan. 4 on Golfweeks Best 2021 list for Alabama. The Inn at Pursell Farms about an hour outside Birmingham in Sylacauga, Alabama (Courtesy of Pursell Farms/Don Naman). Then go play. But we were there in January, like so many others searching for a golf escape in the relative safety of a car during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pool deck was empty. Day 2: One of the greatest perks of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is just how much golf most of their sites have. Were not going to bank on you missing a flight for this second segment, in order for you to play Ross Bridge twice. Holes: 36Comment: Tucked in the remote northern corner of the state are the Schoolmaster and Fighting Joe Courses. 3 Min Read By Jason Scott Deegan Golf Odyssey Golf Odyssey April 2006 Ross Bridge is one of the five longest courses in the world, stretching 8,191 yards off the back tees, and there was nobody out there as the skies briefly parted. Laced with more than 160 pot bunkers amid 20- to 40-foot mounds, the Senator in a breeze presents dozens of ways to play most of its holes, which is liberating after 18 on the more-demanding Judge. Youll also have to improvise a bit on stays. The Trails partnership with Marriott Hotels is extensive, but not extensive enough to cover site outliers like Huntsville and Silver Lakes. 4 and 14 requiring forced carries over water. Each journey will be built around golf but well also sprinkle in a few other sights and stops along the way. Golfers can easily hop over to Oxmoor Valley, a 54-hole RTJ stop in Birmingham carved from former mining land owned by U.S. Steel. Speaking from experience, it was pretty darn fun! I have a lot of love for this facility, and can certainly understand why so many golf groups consider this such a spectacular Stay and Play. And then theres the 18-hole Short Course. With gusts surpassing 30 mph and rain sometimes coming in sideways, Matin and I aimed tee balls to any point of safety around Ross Bridge, clearly outgunned by this behemoth and trying to not lose too many balls on the forced carries into the tempest. Take the golf portion as a challenge if youd like. Robert Trent Jones Sr. had no apprehensions about building difficult golf courses, and its no fun to shoot a high score and play slow. The Fighting Joe Course, opened in a year earlier in 2004, is one of the five longest courses in the world at 8,092 yards. Here are the five best Alabama courses not on the well traveled RTJ Trail. You can play all 54 holes at Oxmoor in one summer day here, no problem, or 36 any other time of the year, and save 18 for the next morning. Copyright 2023 GolfPass. Contrary to its name, the Links course at Grand National requires many forced carries over bunkers and marshes to often elevated, undulating greens. Mix and match between the Canyon, Loblolly and Sherling nines for some of the most breathtaking scenery in Butler County. Golf Digest named the Short Course at Magnolia Grove -- which features new greens -- as the best par-3 course in America. Dothan has national chain hotels available to stay and golf. But as the wintry breezes kicked up a bit under clear, sunny skies, it wasnt the name but the terrain that grabbed our attention. Central Alabama/Birmingham After your final round at The Shoals, youll reluctantly climb in your car and sail back to Birmingham (115 miles). But, frankly, there is just too much great golf to play and sites to enjoy that would make one trip a long and arduous journey. It would be too challenging for todays PGA Tour players (think Bethpage Black with water everywhere) with some holes too short, some too narrow and some with too much water. In my book, this was the hardest course on the entire Trail. The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail holds the accolade of the largest golf course construction project ever attempted; a collection of 468 golf holes & 26 courses on 11 different sites across the state of Alabama. That island green hole is THE signature hole of the entire complex. This solid collection of courses stretches from Mobile to Pensacola, Fla., just across the state line. If you're taking a golf vacation on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, here's one of the 11 sites you absolutely must not miss. The Montgomery Marriott Prattville Hotel & Conference Center at Capitol Hill overlooks the courses and is the ideal extended stay to play around. Pursell Farms is the brainchild of David Pursell, a third-generation landowner who bolstered the familys fertilizer business with a golf course and eventually a boutique hotel. Ten holes skirt two artificial lakes. Keep an eye on this page to learn about the songs, characters, and celebrities appearing in this TV commercial. Capitol Hill is 13 miles north of Montgomery, not 13 miles north of Birmingham. The Loblolly Nine might not pack in the views like the other two full-length nines, but it doesnt lack at all in challenge or intrigue. My son, Dylan, and I did when he was 11 years old, playing 22 of 27 courses (and eating at 22 Sonic restaurants) in 12 incredible June days. Its the one course I most wish I had another shot at, and my only birdie of the day came at the propertys best closing hole. 0800 043 6644. So that was the first four days of golf on this Alabama itinerary, with rounds played on the four highest-ranked courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail plus one other. You can hammer the central part of the Yellowhammer State with this option take on the heart of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail like a boss, and have more Ross fun than NBC gave us in 10 seasons of F-R-I-E-N-D-S. Day 1: However you end up in Birmingham, whether by plane, train or automobile, make your way over to the Renaissance Ross Bridge and check in (again). Ive determined my favorite 18-hole routing is the Azalea front nine followed by the Dogwood front nine, but you only get to play that if theres a club event. The view out the back windows focuses not on golf but on pool fun it was easy to surmise this stop on the Trail is more than a golf site. There's a top 100-caliber course at Kiva Dunes to anchor the trip, along with several other high quality resort-style layouts. This property features two eight-room villas and a 10,000-square-foot Presidential Cottage with a private helicopter landing pad.
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