Sweet Holes Alabama

The Robert Trent Jones Trail has 468 of them, but the southern part of this blossoming golf destination is about much more

Tony Dear

It might be considered heresy in a state that has become synonymous with Robert Trent Jones to say that the tiniest part of me wishes that for the rest of my life I could only play golf courses designed by Earl Stone. Now 87 and living in Mobile, Stone built around 40 courses during a solid design career that never took off the way a former star player’s might, but which left him with an awful lot of friends and admirers.

For 40 years, the Navy veteran and Auburn alum built courses for golfers to enjoy—a curious notion in the latter part of the 20th century when the big name architects appeared not to be concerned with those destined to play the course, but rather on rankings, awards and magazine covers.

“That was never my style,” he says slowly, quietly and not without some effort. “I always remember a conversation I had with a professional sometime in the 1950s,” he adds. “He told me the game was becoming too difficult, and that I should build courses everyone could play. I kept that in mind throughout my career, and always considered the 18-handicapper when designing a hole.”

Stone’s courses are far from cupcakes, however. They are plenty long from the back tees and if the superintendent chooses to grow the rough, suck all the moisture out of the putting surfaces, and stick the pins in the corners, an Earl Stone course becomes extremely challenging. But that’s not what members, visitors, general managers, owners or superintendents want.

OFF THE TRAIL

While the 11 sites and 26 courses of the Robert Trent Jones Trail extends brilliantly from The Shoals in the north to Lakewood Golf Club in the south, a concentration of layouts in the southern part of the state—many of them designed by Earl Stone—forms a somewhat more manageable gauntlet.

Located a half hour east of Mobile and less than 20 minutes north of the coastal resort city of Gulf Shores, Rock Creek Golf Club in Fairhope ranks as Stone’s best layout, and General Manager ChadLeonard says everyone that plays the course loves it just the way it is. “We have a thriving membership and plenty of outside play,” he says. “We do about 30,000 rounds a year and get a lot of return rounds. Many of our guests are beach-goers who just can’t pass by without stopping in for some golf.”

Pictured Above: Rock Creek Golf Club

Besides the quality of its design and the fact you can play it for just $52 after noon ($62 before noon), Rock Creek is notable for its ability to stand up to the occasional downpour—as my group and I discovered on the first day of our Alabama swing.

Not wanting to miss a course with such a good reputation, we teed it up expecting to have to dodge muddy patches and pools of standing water. But there weren’t any. Despite what must have been somewhere between three and four inches of rain falling from the sky, Rock Creek remained perfectly playable. And when the sun did eventually come out after nine holes, we saw it at its glorious best.

Stone isn’t at all surprised his course coped so well. “My three watchwords when building a golf course were drainage, drainage, and drainage,” he says. “We didn’t do anything very complicated at Rock Creek though. We didn’t put in a multi-million dollar irrigation system or anything like that.”

Fairhope actually enjoys 221 sunny days a year—about 30 fewer than Denver, according to the National Climatic Data Center—and the best months to come are April and October, although any time outside June through August should be agreeable to all but the most delicate of wallflowers.

In addition to Rock Creek, Stone designed 27 lovely holes at TimberCreek outside Spanish Fort, as well as the three nines— Marsh, Lakes, and Cypress—at Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club in Gulf Shores. Even so, given the absence of any discernible style and his dislike of architectural grandstanding, nothing at either course suggests it is an Earl Stone course other than the fact that once you’ve finished you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at how keen you are to go out for nine more.

Eighteen probably won’t be enough at Kiva Dunes, either. Designed by 1976 U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate, the region’s undisputed star course in sits eight miles west of Peninsula on Highway 180. On the way there, you’ll pass to Fort Morgan State Park and what is left of the impressive, starshaped fort nicknamed “Guardian of Mobile Bay”—which is something of a misnomer considering the ease with which Union Admiral D.G. Farragut swept past it during the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5th, 1864.

Pictured Above: Kiva Dunes

Developed by Pate’s good friends Jim Edgemond and Larry Drummond, Kiva was Pate’s fifth course for Drummond, Vice- Chairman of the Drummond Mining Company. “I knew Larry very well,” says Pate. “He trusted me and gave me the opportunity to build a course on land every architect in the world would have killed for.”

As the name suggests, Kiva Dunes sits on sand hills and ridges which rise above the lagoons and wetlands that help make the site so appealing. The course is sandwiched between Mobile Bay to the north and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, though it doesn’t actually possess any waterfront holes.

The turf is very unlinks-like too. The 419 Bermuda on the fairways and Champion Dwarf Bermuda on the greens play very differently to the fescues you might find on seaside courses in cooler climates, but are extremely well-maintained by superintendent Mike Rienzi.

Kiva’s holes run east to west and vice versa, taking “advantage’ of the wind which, Pate says, follows the sun as the day progresses. “I am very familiar with the Gulf Coast and the behavior of the wind,” he says. “I wanted the golfer to be tested by downwind and headwind shots.” The lagoons run east-west/ west-east too. “Rather than having numerous forced carries over the water, I wanted the hazards to run down the sides of certain holes meaning high-handicappers wouldn’t have to spend the day trying desperately to get over them.”

Thus, Kiva Dunes is tough but very playable. And though the green fee of $92 is a little higher than those of other courses nearby, you can play six rounds for an average of $65 per round with cart by purchasing the Kiva Dunes 6-Pack which is available through the end of March.

Traveling golfers looking for well-designed, good value courses needn’t really venture far from Gulf Shores. Besides Kiva Dunes and Peninsula, there’s Gulf Shores Golf Club— which in 2005 received a multi-million dollar makeover by the original designer Jay Morrish— two excellent Arnold Palmer courses at Craft Farms three miles north of town and, about eight miles further north, a very good Bruce Devlin/Robin Von Hagge design at Glen Lakes. For a great place to stay, try the Beach Club condo hotel/resort that overlooks the Gulf just a mile east of Kiva Dunes. The 700 condo units all have balconies, kitchens, comfortable lounges, and one, two, three, four, or five bedrooms making them ideal for couples, families, or small groups.

Pictured Above: Gulf Shores Golf Club

ON THE TRAIL

Now 21 years old, the Robert Trent Jones Trail hosted its ten millionth round last summer. It was conceived by Dr. David Bronner, a Ph.D. and law degree student from the University of Alabama and now the CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, a public pension fund with assets in excess of $30 billion providing benefits for over 325,000 public employees and retirees.

What you might not remember, however, is that Bronner decided to go ahead with his plan for the Trail despite the fact the US was still feeling the effects of a serious recession bought on by the staggering 22.6% drop the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered on October 19th 1987 (Black Monday), the failing Saving & Loans industry, and the start of the Gulf War. “Sure, some might have thought it wasn’t the best time to be spending $200 million on building golf courses,” says Bronner. “But I felt the reverse was true. I’ve always believed the ideal time to build and invest is when no one else is.”

The initial concept had been laid out by US Steel, which was planning an 18-hole course on land it then owned at Oxmoor Valley near Birmingham. Bronner wasn’t convinced, however. “I had something much bigger in mind,” he says.

When word got out Bronner was thinking of building a number of multi-course facilities throughout the state, he began receiving calls from landowners looking to get involved. “To be honest, I didn’t know I was going to build the Trail six months before we started,” he says. “I was looking for a product to avert snowbirds going to and coming back from Florida. I wanted to diversify RSA’s assets and give Alabama tourism a boost, and when I started getting all these calls from people wanting to build golf courses, I realized they would be a great way to give people who up to then had zipped through Alabama as quickly as possible something worth stopping for.”

Bronner sent out letters he describes as “pretty vague” to five designers asking for feedback on his idea. The response wasn’t entirely positive. “One wrote saying I had surely meant we would start with 18 holes at each site and then maybe build to 36 or 54 once the first course had proved successful,” says Bronner. “He couldn’t believe I intended building two or even three courses at most sites.” Another’s rather curt reply stated Bronner couldn’t possibly afford him. Jones was the only one to phone him. “Trent did ask if I was serious but, when I convinced him I was, he got on board pretty quickly.”

Lakewood Golf Club in Point Clear, the Trail’s most southerly stop, is the only location whose courses weren’t built from scratch or designed by Jones and his associates Roger Rulewich and Bobby Vaughan. Opened in 1947, the first course at Lakewood was actually the work of Perry Maxwell whose other credits include Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., and Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kan. His layout was made up of two distinct nines called the Dogwood and Azalea due to the profusion of both.

Pictured Above: Lakewood Golf Club, Azaela No. 1

Edward A. Roberts, CEO of Waterman Steamship Company and owner of the nearby Grand Hotel had commissioned the course after the Second World War. As the hotel grew, Maxwell’s 18 holes, renamed the Old Course, became insufficient for the ever-growing number of guests, so Joe Lee was bought in to add nine more holes which he built on former swampland to the west of Maxwell’s course. In 1982, Marriott bought the hotel and added 200 guest rooms. Again, more golf course was required and Ron Garl was hired to design holes 28 through 36.

Bronner bought the hotel and golf courses in 1999. “The Grand and Lakewood Golf Club made up what was really the only decent resort in the state for decades,” he says. “But they had been going downhill for years. Marriott hadn’t really been investing in them, and both were looking a bit tired.” By 2005, RSA had spent $50 million renovating the hotel and several million more on tidying up the golf courses. The results were outstanding. A 20,000-square-foot spa, impressive pool complex, top-notch restaurants and additional guest rooms (405 total now) saw the hotel awarded AAA Four Diamond status, while Rulewich and Vaughan worked some magic on the golf courses.

The transitions from Maxwell to Lee and from Maxwell to Garl aren’t exactly seamless, but aren’t so blatant a total novice could identify where each occurred. Indeed, many of Lee’s and Garl’s holes are every bit as enjoyable as Maxwell’s, though the best holes on the property certainly belong to Alister Mackenzie’s former partner.

Just a few miles outside of Mobile, 25 miles north and west from Point Clear, is Lakewood’s RTJ Trail neighbor Magnolia Grove, venue for the LPGA Tour’s Mobile Bay Classic in May. There are three courses here: the Crossings, which hosts the lady professionals; the Falls; and the superb 18- hole Short Course which Golf Digest ranked as the best Par-3 course in America.

With large bunkers, huge greens, plenty of water, lofty Southern Longleaf pines bordering the fairways, and what golfers from other states might consider totally excessive parcels of land used for each hole, all three look distinctly Southern. Hit the ball half decently and you should have no problem finding the generous fairways and sizeable greens, but you’ll likely leave yourself some lengthy approach putts so you’ll need a deft touch with the putter to keep your score respectable. But whatever you card, you’re sure to enjoy the stroll through the forest.

While in Mobile, stay at the elegant Battle House Hotel which started life in 1852 but was destroyed by fire in 1905 then rebuilt on the same site in 1908. In 2001, Bronner, announced plans to invest $132 million in downtown Mobile by building the state’s tallest office tower and renovating the Battle House Hotel. It reopened in May 2007 and, two years later, Travel + Leisure listed it among the top 500 hotels in the world.

Pictured Above: Battle House exterior

The renovation of the Battle House demonstrated Bronner’s commitment to Alabama which, he is the first to admit, wasn’t always the most attractive destination in the country. “I remember chatting on the phone with a businessman friend shortly after the Trail opened,” he says. “He told me he wanted to bring some clients to Alabama to play these great new courses he heard about, but added he was hesitant to because he thought the lodging and clubhouses wouldn’t be up to much. He said he expected to find two dogs and a trailer at each course and that there wouldn’t be anywhere decent for them to stay.”

Bronner certainly didn’t skimp on the clubhouses, however, and he began buying, renovating and building world-class resorts for golfers playing his courses to stay in. There are now eight in all, four carrying the Marriott brand, four Renaissance.

Whether you start your time in southern Alabama on the two RTJ Trail courses and finish in Gulf Shores or head north from the coast, it is a trip you really have to make. There’s just too much good golf to ignore. Add affordable green fees, the beaches, the hospitality, warm fall/winter weather, fishing on the Gulf, and the food…OMG the food… and you have a golf destination that now might figure among your favorite places to play.

RELATED LINKS

A Maxwell Stop on Alabama's RTJ Trail

The RTJ Trail Celebrates Ten Million Golf Rounds

RTJGolf.com

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.