4.5 courses of the Robert Trent Jones Trail

[iSank]

The wife and I found we had a week between 2 events (Thanksgiving w/family & the SEC championship football game) so here’ how the week went. Friday the 24th we played Ross Bridge, nice course, it’s a bit BIG, big hills, big carries, and it was a full day, we got paired up with another 2 ball and it was a full 4:45 game.

Scored a couple Iron Bowl tickets so we cancelled Oxmoor Valley as it was an all day affair.

Sunday the 26th we woke up near Montgomery and tee’d off early on the Judge, here’s a look at the first.

The next day we played The Senator, and we really enjoyed both courses. The Judge was a bit busy but we played at a fair pace around 4:20. On the Senator we never saw another group ahead or behind us until the 17th, finished in 3:20, a lovely day out. 

Right after that game we loaded the car and took off for Opelika, home of the Grand National courses. We arrived about 90 min before sunset so we asked if we could jump on the par 3 for 9 holes, and that was our 0.5 game we played, and it was fun as the sun began to set.

Next day we played the Lakes course and with the fall colors, and no crowds we had another absolutely lovely day. We had no group near us on any hole and finished just over 3 hours. Here’s one of the par 5’s and you see how nice a day it was. 

This was my favorite course of the trip and we will most surely return. The staff at the Marriott here was also very good. 

Then we drove to Atlanta, we had the next day off until dinner so we looked around for a course to play and we decided on The Bear’s Best gold course. We teed off close to 10AM and had the front nine to ourselves, then on the 9th we hit a little traffic but all we had to was slow our game a bit and we ended up not waiting very much at all. Here’s the 2nd par 3 on the front 9 

Said this one was designed after #12 Muirfield Village. The course was good fun, and we were back in the city well before nightfall. So tomorrow we’ll pack on the clubs and on Sunday with any luck we’ll go to Hawaii. 

Mahalo,

iSank

 

Edited November 30, 2017 by iSank
Fix a couple typos

[BamaWade]

@iSank, glad to hear you enjoyed your trip--and golf--in Alabama.  We've been having some fantastic weather for late November.  I've played lots of golf on the RTJ trail (and all of the courses you mentioned), and like them all.  Most recently (last month) played the Senator; I got going after a bit, but put several balls into those death-mounds--a couple wayward drives, but a couple more I hit great that were simply aiming issues (where my eyes were fooled and I drove through fairways).  Aiming is really difficult on that course.  But also played Ross Bridge last fall (huge course; my cousin and college roommate is the superintendent there), and just before that, The Judge (it beat me up that windy day) and Oxmoor Valley (3 birdies that fine day, including my best-ever 4-iron to 3').  Been a while since I've played Grand National, which is a shame since my son went to AU for 2 years.  Took my clubs there on several trips when visiting him, but the timing never worked out.  Amazing course(s), though.

Curious: what's your connection to the Iron Bowl/SEC Championship?  Roll Tide, or War Eagle for you?  Or just a neutral observer?

Anyway, if you guys are close by Alabama again and want a 3rd, hit me up!

BamaWade  (and, for me...Roll Tide!)

[iSank]

1 hour ago, BamaWade said:

 

Curious: what's your connection to the Iron Bowl/SEC Championship?  Roll Tide, or War Eagle for you?  Or just a neutral observer?

Anyway, if you guys are close by Alabama again and want a 3rd, hit me up!

There’s no short answer to that other than it gets the family together. My team is great at critical sports such as golf, I pull for the Commodores, go Vandy! But I just enjoy good competition, was kinda pulling for Bama because the Hawaii connection aka Tua Tagavailoa. 

Will do the 3 ball on our next RTJ Trail visit. 

The weather has been fantastic, sorry we missed Oxmoor ; the IB came up last minute. We will definitely be back with clubs.

[iSank]

Ok so Friday AM was free so let’s get one more round in...

it was bit chilly and foggy but we had a good challenge and much fun. The course was Cherokee Run and it was in December shape. And a big Salute to my wife, she was all bundled up and still aiming for a birdee. 

[BamaWade]

On 11/30/2017 at 4:50 PM, iSank said:

Will do the 3 ball on our next RTJ Trail visit. 

The weather has been fantastic, sorry we missed Oxmoor ; the IB came up last minute. We will definitely be back with clubs.

Sounds great--glad you guys enjoyed it.  And taking the IB tix is a no-brainer over Oxmoor.  That's an amazing event.  I like Oxmoor okay; it's a nice course--all the RTJ courses are--just down the list for me.  BTW, also a big Tua fan so far.  I hope he does great things here (and his brother,too, in the future...perhaps).

[MGN]

For someone with a 2-3 days time driving in from the TX area (I-10), is there a recommendation of courses (maybe 2-3) that can be done on the RJT trail not too far off from the I-10 latitude?

[iSank]

6 hours ago, MGN said:

For someone with a 2-3 days time driving in from the TX area (I-10), is there a recommendation of courses (maybe 2-3) that can be done on the RJT trail not too far off from the I-10 latitude?

Well, I’m not too familiar with the road but it looks like in Greenville there’s 36 holes of the RTJ. Let us know if it’s worth the trip south! 

Here’s the guide for all their courses.

or rather the link to where I got the guide

https://www.rtjgolf.com/trailguide/

have fun!

.

Edited January 11, 2018 by iSank
Edited to remove pdf and just post link