Northern Alabama Golf Weekend

Golf Digest, 3/12, 11/10

  Shoals GC Schoolmaster Course

Away Game: Alabama

Happy Trails

By Peter Finch
Photos By Michael Clemmer 

Huntsville's roots are in the cotton trade, so you'll pass plenty of cotton fields if you miss a turn and wander off the interstate (as we did). These days the area's economy is mainly dependent on defense contracting, with a special emphasis on rocket science. The U.S. Space & Rocket Center (www.rocketcenter.com) beckons tourists with thousands of artifacts, including a life-size space shuttle simulator that looms large over Highway 565.

Huntsville is also home to Hampton Cove, one of the two northernmost stops on Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. There are three 18s--Highlands, River and Short (a par-3 course). We shook off our car ride with a quick nine holes on the Short course, then hit Highlands, the more acclaimed of the two "big" courses, before finishing our day on the Short's back nine. Highlands is a fun and pleasantly varied layout with water affecting your strategic decisions on nearly half the holes. It cuts through a prosperous neighborhood of massive homes, many of them owned by people working in defense contracting. In other words, it seems a bit like an upscale country club in Anywhere, USA. This adds little to its appeal for visiting golfers hoping for something more out of the ordinary.

We found what we were looking for the next morning in Muscle Shoals, an hour and 15 minutes west. The two RTJ Trail courses here, Fighting Joe and the Schoolmaster, are dramatic brutes built along the Tennessee River. We joined an event called Bring Your Old Buddy, a shotgun tournament that its organizers claim is the biggest in the world. All but one of the 11 RTJ Trail sites participated, with a total of 1,461 golfers going off at exactly 10 a.m. Central time.

  Muscle Shoals GC, Fightin' Joe Course #18

With much of the course sitting on a bluff and unprotected by trees, Fighting Joe will wear you out when it's windy. The first three holes played directly into the breeze for our round, which meant that even No. 2 and No. 3 (less than 400-yard par 4s from the tees we played) took three shots to reach. Not that the course is toothless when the wind dies down. You can play from tees stretching as far back as 8,092 yards, if you must. 

The Schoolmaster inhabits a more sheltered piece of property, with trees and rolling hills acting as natural wind buffers. Golf Digest readers give it ★ ★ ★ ★ to Fighting Joe's ★ ★ ★ ★ ½, but locals seem to prefer the Schoolmaster. "It's a little less intimidating than Fighting Joe, which has more water to deal with," says Dan Benedetti, head professional. "In the summer you get more shade on the Schoolmaster."

Escape from the heat wasn't an issue for us, playing in early December. The afternoon temperature, only slightly higher than usual for that time of year, was right around 60 degrees. It should be back into the 70s by April, when green fees start to inch back up, too. At their peak in May, a round costs $64 at Hampton Cove and Muscle Shoals--though package deals and replay rates can reduce that a bit. 

Gibson's Bar-B-Que in Huntsville is rightly famous for it's pork-stuffed baked potatoes and cocounut-cream pie.  Dale's in Florence, near Muscle Shoals, is the local's top pick for steaks (and it's beloved Dale's Steak Seasoning Sauce).


My Town: Stewart Cink
A former major champion offers some reasons to consider North Alabama for your next golf trip

By Tim Rosaforte, Golf Digest
November 1, 2010

Stewart Cink left the shoals of North Alabama for Georgia Tech in the 1990s and never moved back, making his home in Atlanta and raising his family at the TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga. That doesn't mean the 2009 British Open champion forgot where he came from -- or what to do when he returns.

With fond memories of his youth, the 37-year-old recalls the area's rustic atmosphere while serving as tour guide for a homecoming that includes two 8,000-yard courses on the Tennessee River, the best barbeque in the South, a music festival and a historic dam, along with a day trip to Huntsville for a fascinating look at traveling to space.

COURSES
There are two courses that recently opened that are affordable and the newest members of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail -- The Shoals. One's called Fighting Joe, named after Joseph Wheeler, the only Confederate general to attain the same rank in the post-war U.S. army. It's more of a links-style layout compared to the other course, the Schoolmaster, which was the nickname for President Woodrow Wilson, who helped get the nearby Wilson Dam built. The Schoolmaster works its way through the topography of the Tennessee Valley. Both are big courses, although the yardages from the tips (8,092 and 7,971 yards, respectively) are a little bit of a gimmick. Still, both are very nice.

I grew up playing Florence G&CC, which closed after 83 years last Dec. 31. Now, the best private club to play is Turtle Point Yacht and CC in Killen. It's where I have my charity tournament, the Healing Place Charity Championship. If you're around in June, you can sign up. It sells out a month in advance, but if you enter as a single early enough, we'll make room.

WHERE TO STAY
It's hard to beat the Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa in Florence. It was built in the last 10 years and ranks among the top 10 Marriott spas in North America. Plus there's lots for kids to do.

DON'T MISS
Right beside the Marriott is the Wilson Dam, which is an old TVA project. They have a tour that gives the history of hydroelectric power...About a 90-minute drive away in Huntsville is the National Space and Rocket Center. Kids take field trips there; even the Atlanta kids go. We lived there through kindergarten, and I could see the rockets from my backyard. It's cool for kids to go and experience anti-gravity and see the old Saturn rockets and how massive they were.

Dining:

I'm a BBQ guy, and where I grew up, they specialized in BBQ county by county, varying by local tastes. One of the most famous places is Big Bob Gibson's in Decatur. It's legendary in Alabama.

  Bob Gibson's BBQ and the Marriott Shoals

Downtown in Florence is Trowbridges Ice Cream and Sandwich bar. It's been there since I was a kid. It has the quintessential shakes and chilidogs. It's such a soda shop. They've built plenty of Cracker Barrels in the area, but this has stood the test of time.

Music:
The Shoals area isn't too far from Memphis (about a three-hour drive), so jazz is big around there. Each July, the W.C. Handy Music Festival is held in Florence. It's named for the famed jazz musician who is from the town.