Alabama Golf - Gulf Shores Area - Reccomendations?

smartcore · January 26, 2013

My wife and I are taking our first trip to Gulf Shores the first week of February and was wondering if anyone can reccomend a course.

I'll be playing with my Dad down there. He's in his 60's and he plays only a couple times a year so really just looking for a good leisurely round of golf, nothing overly difficult or challenging.

Anyone have any ideas?

thanks

Dead Solid Perfect · January 27, 2013

If you can get to The Preserve or Fallen Oak get there!

whysguy · January 28, 2013

Was down there last summer.
Fallen Oak is terrific. Beautiful track, super nice folks. Awesome clubhouse. Heat index of 120+ that day and had the course to ouselves. Played 42 holes.
My other fav was Grand Bear. Really secluded. Staff were great. Fairways smoother than the carpet in my living room..
The Preserve was next in line.
Did not really like Shell Landing.
Good food at the new Margaritaville
And oysters at the Half Shell house (or some name like that.) Sat up at the bar and the chef kept em coming.

A great vacation destination.

BG5 · January 28, 2013

Kiva dunes is my pick. You won't be disappointed!

wdm50 · January 29, 2013

The Peninsula and Cotton Creek Golf Club are the best !!!

Dead Solid Perfect · January 30, 2013

[quote name='whysguy' timestamp='1359429812' post='6319411']
Was down there last summer.
Fallen Oak is terrific. Beautiful track, super nice folks. Awesome clubhouse. Heat index of 120+ that day and had the course to ouselves. Played 42 holes.
My other fav was Grand Bear. Really secluded. Staff were great. Fairways smoother than the carpet in my living room..
The Preserve was next in line.
Did not really like Shell Landing.
Good food at the new Margaritaville
And oysters at the Half Shell house (or some name like that.) Sat up at the bar and the chef kept em coming.

A great vacation destination.
[/quote]
The Grand Bear was also a great track. We may or may not have damaged rental car turning around after we got messed up heading back to casino after we left there.

spacely · January 30, 2013

Kiva Dunes for sure. Tough track and great scenery. Be sure to go to Lulu's one afternoon/evening.

865golf · January 30, 2013

Given your criteria for a "leisurely round of golf, nothing overly difficult or challenging", I would definitely recommend Peninsula. Kiva Dunes is a great course, but it is difficult and challenging.

Johnny Biarritz · February 1, 2013

Wow, guys recommending Fallen Oak and the Biloxi area courses need a geography lesson...it's going to take more than 2 hours to get over there to those courses, significantly longer than that if traffic is bad on 59 and/or the Causeway. Kiva Dunes is supposedly the best course down there, actually best public course in the state depending which magazine you read. However, it looks to have water on just about every hole. The rest of the courses down there, other than Gulf State Park, look to be overpriced housing development courses and I've not heard from a source I'd really trust anything to make me think different. Whatever you do, don't play Lakewood in Point Clear, it's significantly overpriced, so much so that I'm getting rather emotional right now thinking of how much money I wasted there the time I played. I also understand that Soldiers Creek is decent and from what I can tell, the price doesn't look too bad, but it's not all that close to Gulf Shores.

aellis13 · February 3, 2013

Kiva is good but is more target golf. Very scenic though. There is also Craft farms which I really enjoyed. Very playable layout and pretty well regarded

AWolfe · February 13, 2013

I played Kiva Dunes about a week after Christmas. My parents vacation in Gulf Shores so the wife and I took a trip to visit and get out of the snow here in Nebraska. I did some pretty extensive research as to which course to play, since I was only able to play once while we were down there. Every course I called, about 6 in all, were within about $15 of one another in price.
Kiva was fantastic. Moderately priced, excellent condition, and very friendly staff. I will say that it is definitely not an easy course. The fairways are fairly generous but there is trouble on just about every hole. I would recommend this course to anyone looking to play in Gulf Shores.
For what it's worth, I got paired up with some Memphis, TN transplants who live down there on the Peninsula course. They said it is a great 27 hole layout but is considerably easier than Kiva Dunes.