Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama

[Chief Illiniwek]

Played the trail last month for the second time last month and loved it again. Hit Grand National, Capitol Hill, and Oxmoor Valley. Pretty good weather the first two days, but a bit of rain moved through the last two days. Played CH through it the third day and course conditions stayed great and despite the weather we still had a great time.

 

My question is does Oxmoor Valley drain really poorly or is it a pretty soggy course after rains? Played 7-8 years ago and again this year and it was a mudfest compared to CH, but for all I know it just got more rain than Prattville.

[Gilmore-Happy]

I'm a regular at the Shoals courses (Fighting Joe and Schoolmaster). I actually live in Huntsville but I'm not a fan of Hampton Cove at all. I do like the lay out of the Highlands course a lot, but they don't seem to keep them in shape as well as the other courses on the trail. The two Shoals courses are always in better shape and have all around better layouts. That's just my opinion though. I'm in the Shoals area pretty often too because most of my family live there so it's usually the more convenient choice. I plan on making a trip down to Ross Bridge and/or Grand National when we get some consistent weather.

[Conrad1953]

Played the trail last month for the second time last month and loved it again. Hit Grand National, Capitol Hill, and Oxmoor Valley. Pretty good weather the first two days, but a bit of rain moved through the last two days. Played CH through it the third day and course conditions stayed great and despite the weather we still had a great time.

 

My question is does Oxmoor Valley drain really poorly or is it a pretty soggy course after rains? Played 7-8 years ago and again this year and it was a mudfest compared to CH, but for all I know it just got more rain than Prattville.

 

Glad you had a great time Chief!

[golfgoob]

If you only have time for one round at Hampton Cove, which course would you play?

[GOUFGO]

If you only have time for one round at Hampton Cove, which course would you play?

 

River. Highlands is though a residential area which isn't a bad thing, but when you think about the trail courses; you don't think subdivision golf.

[tiderider]

Played the trail last month for the second time last month and loved it again. Hit Grand National, Capitol Hill, and Oxmoor Valley. Pretty good weather the first two days, but a bit of rain moved through the last two days. Played CH through it the third day and course conditions stayed great and despite the weather we still had a great time.

 

My question is does Oxmoor Valley drain really poorly or is it a pretty soggy course after rains? Played 7-8 years ago and again this year and it was a mudfest compared to CH, but for all I know it just got more rain than Prattville.

 

the area around b'ham is quite a bit hillier/mountainous than prattville, so there's your answer ... i know last year it wasn't until may or so when i didn't get mud on my shoes from walking ... rained a good bit in the winter and it was a pretty good winter, as this year was ... we were cpo last week while ch was 90 degrees, though we got more rain ... but ch is just flatter and right next to some water, so i'm guessing it just drains better because of that ... the ridge is esp bad ... lot of down/up holes that don't have a way out for the water ... par 5 #3 is horrible on the right side ... extremely soggy after a rain ...

[St Jimmy]

I was at Oxmoor last week after the heavy rains. It was CPO, of course, but it wasn’t saturated.

Farmlinks on the other hand, was a swampy mess. Granted it was a beautiful and awesome swampy mess that I would LOVE to return to under ideal conditions.

[chippa13]

I'm a huge fan of Grand National since my dad moved to Opelika some 7 years ago and try to get down there at least once a year. War Eagle!

[sterry17]

Headed there next month, May 7-11. What is the weather like this time of year? Am I going to be a sweaty mess?

[Smooth spin scott]

Leaving next week for Grand National...Mid to high 70s...I'll take that after this ugly winter up here in Toronto.

[Conrad1953]

Headed there next month, May 7-11. What is the weather like this time of year? Am I going to be a sweaty mess?

 

Weather is pretty changeable in May. We get clear low humidity days in the 70s to 80s

and we get hot sweaty days into the 90s. This far out hard to tell what you'll get. I suggest

you just look at the 5-10 day forecast before you leave to get an idea what to expect.

 

Much of the rain here comes with electricity so keep that in mind as well. They'll blow

the horns if there's lightning within a certain amount of miles from the course(s).

[Smooth spin scott]

Just got back from Bama, had fantastic weather and for those of you heading down, just a few reviews...

 

1. Played Grand National Lakes first day. Group was disappointed, greens were slow, fairways were terrible shape and were like trying to hit off of concrete, course was absolutely packed. Front nine boring, back nine definitely has more interesting holes.Lakes was a bust for us. Not a great start to the trip. I can see why they decided to move the Barbasol PGA event.

 

2. Links course, one of my all time favourites. Great shape, greens running a little slow but with the tiers on the greens probably a good thing,,,Have played them with faster conditions in March. Great course, each hole is different, always a group favourite, Unlike Lakes, the fairways were lush and easy to hit from.

 

3. Farm Links. Great service, had an awesome day, large fairways, great par 3s. Definitely one of our favourites in Alabama.

 

4. Called an audible and cancelled our 2nd round on the Lakes and headed to the Judge. Always a fun course, greens super fast, fairways in great condition.

 

5. 6 of us played a 3 man scramble on the short course...after a long hot 18 holes, this was a great format and had a ton of fun. Definitely a must play.

 

5. Finished off on the Links again...just loved that course,

[chippa13]

Strange to hear the Lakes course was disappointing. I always enjoy it when I'm down there. Also, funny that you complain about slow greens on Lakes but was happy for slow greens on Links. Both courses have the 3 tiered greens.

[me05501]

If you're doing the Trail and have a day near Birmingham, Limestone Springs is a great daily-fee course in the area. I personally prefer it to Ross Bridge. I've played Oxmoor but it's been ages and I don't remember much about it.

[bg4266]

Finally made it down to Ross Bridge and was very disappointed after hyping it up so much (in my mind). They have had to replace most of the sod around all the greens due to fungus, which has gotten onto some of the greens as well. The course was very saturated, even thought it had not rained for a couple of days. Some fairways you had to dig your ball out of the plug and had no reasonable place to drop. Fairways were finally getting cut as we played the back nine (around noon) and they were cutting about 3/8" to 1/2" off. On the front nine we joked about hitting it down the middle to the intermediate cut of fairway. All in all, I was not pleased with the experience.

 

Played Oxmoor (Valley) the same afternoon and it was in GREAT shape. Will definitely be going back there!

[Gilmore-Happy]

Finally made it down to Ross Bridge and was very disappointed after hyping it up so much (in my mind). They have had to replace most of the sod around all the greens due to fungus, which has gotten onto some of the greens as well. The course was very saturated, even thought it had not rained for a couple of days. Some fairways you had to dig your ball out of the plug and had no reasonable place to drop. Fairways were finally getting cut as we played the back nine (around noon) and they were cutting about 3/8" to 1/2" off. On the front nine we joked about hitting it down the middle to the intermediate cut of fairway. All in all, I was not pleased with the experience.

 

Played Oxmoor (Valley) the same afternoon and it was in GREAT shape. Will definitely be going back there!

I play the Shoals courses almost every weekend and the club pro told me the exact same thing. He said Ross Bridge was all hype and Oxmoor was a much better choice. Guess I'll have to give Oxmoor a try instead.

[tiderider]

ross bridge is normally in very good condition ... i'm not a fan of the layout and think they are a bit full of themselves, but normally, the maintenance is high quality ... oxmoor is my home course and a solid golfing experience ... you will not walk away and think you must return, but for around $70 for you guys, it ain't bad ... neither is/are the b'ham attractions ...

[TNgolfduffer13]

Just checking in to see how the conditions are at Oxmoor (both courses), Ross Bridge, and Fighting Joe at the Shoals. Got a weekend trip coming up, and I know it’s rained a bit lately. Thanks In advance.

[ButchGann]

> @TNgolfduffer13 said:

> Just checking in to see how the conditions are at Oxmoor (both courses), Ross Bridge, and Fighting Joe at the Shoals. Got a weekend trip coming up, and I know it’s rained a bit lately. Thanks In advance.

 

Finally got over and played the Shoals weekend before last (School Master though) and it was in excellent shape.

[tiderider]

> @TNgolfduffer13 said:

> Just checking in to see how the conditions are at Oxmoor (both courses), Ross Bridge, and Fighting Joe at the Shoals. Got a weekend trip coming up, and I know it’s rained a bit lately. Thanks In advance.

 

conditions are good at oxmoor ... got a good bit of rain the past few days, which the course probably needed ... the greens are rolling well, for the most part, though the greens are the original turf from 25 years ago, so the bent grass greens are very, very soft and susceptible to ball marks ... the greens on the valley are bermuda and can be rather sticky, so balls don't roll back down slopes that often, but they do roll smooth ... they're both in solid condition ...

[TNgolfduffer13]

Thank you for the updates. Got a group of 4 coming down this weekend from Nashville.

[tiderider]

will be cart path only, and a bit of slog ... wet all over the deep south ...

[TNgolfduffer13]

Reporting back on the conditions from this past weekend. We played Fighting Joe on Friday afternoon (cart path only), not overly wet and course was wide open had a great time. Saturday we played 36 Oxmoor Ridge in the AM and the Valley in the PM. We liked the Valley more then the Ridge (both cart path only). These courses were very wet and also service was not overly great with the cart girl only coming around 1 i the AM and 1 on hole 2 in the PM. The cart girl had also already run out of vodka for bloody mary's at 9 AM? How does this happen? The starter allowed a group of 16 (4 4-somes together) to tee off late and thus our AM round was a long slog waiting on each of the foursome in front. The afternoon was better as far as speed of the round. Sunday morning we finished with 18 at Ross Bridge (90* rule). The service here was spectacular from start to finish. The course was in great shape with a lot of Augusta type vibes especially the long par 4 8th and par 3 11th. Greens were rolling well.