The question was straightforward. It came after a dinner out, late. Bottles of wine, as in multiples, had been served. “How long do you think it would take to build 20 golf courses?” Pause. This is where all their discussions had led, to this one essential question. He thought about it, tried to come up…
I’d like to ask Jerry Pate someday why he routed Kiva Dunes the way it is. I’m sure there’s a good reason all the holes run east-west, I’d just like to know what it is. Lack of acreage could have something to do with it. The site is on a narrow isthmus on the coastal edge of Alabama between Bon…
The remarkable par-3 5th. It can be a little difficult to describe FarmLinks, one of the more unique and entertaining golf destinations in the Southeast. FarmLinks is the name of the golf course located on a bucolic 3,500-acre family-operated preserve about an hour south of Birmingham. The Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry design wanders freely just about…
Critics are typically charged with making judgments based on first or preliminary impressions. Movie critics don’t typically have the luxury of watching films over and over to absorb their intricacies. Wine critics can render reviews after rifling through dozens of glasses in one sitting. Book reviewers have to process enormous amounts of material on deadline.…
Certain elements of the Ridge Course at Oxmoor Valley in southeast Birmingham are fairly outrageous. I think of the 1st and 2nd holes (formerly the 10th and 11th, a par-4 followed by a par-5, one going uphill, the other downhill) that are so steep they play like a life size Q-bert pyramid where the only place a ball can come to rest…
The Valley Course at Oxmoor Valley makes a dramatic entrance with a tee shot that drops nearly 200 feet to a fairway bracketed by large clover bunkers. The rest of the routing covers the tamer flats on the western side of Little Shades Mountain with none of the big up and down movements of the Ridge Course, at…
Cambrian Ridge is the best and the worst of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, all in one place. It’s on an absolutely brutal site with way too many steep slopes plunging into lakes and gullies and a lineup of holes that begin on one level, play to another and finish on a third. There’s almost no…
Many people, and many rankings, consider the Lake Course at Grand National the best stop on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Trail. I’m not sure I agree (Ross Bridge) but I wouldn’t waste time arguing with them. Other locations have their strong points, but if you want to know what the Trail is all about visit here…
Ross Bridge is one of the biggest courses you’ll ever play. I’m not just talking about the 8,200-yard “Black” tees that are purely marketing fodder (although the way things are going, there could be a PGA TOUR event coming in the future), but rather the overall size, shape and scale of the property and its golf…
Rock Creek, a development course southeast of Mobile, is less than a mile inland from Mobile Bay but it might as well be in the mountains north of Birmingham. The land is quite hilly creating some adventurous up and down shots as the two nines circle out casually through shaded homes and corridors of thick…