Bravo
Well-Known Member
- Aug 27, 2004
- 5,822
- 15
Sounds to me like I would be all over those State courses. I could give a rat's ass about the ambience of the clubhouse, and having somebody carry my clubs from the car to the pro shop borders on the absurd. And I can clean my own clubs, thank you very much.
To me it's all about the course. Are the fairways and greens properly maintained? (I can live with slightly "rugged" tee boxes.) Does the course have a nice variety of holes, with one or two really memorable ones? Does the property put more emphasis on golf, or golf course homes? Do I feel at the end of the round that I've gotten a bargain?
Sounds to me like the Alabama State courses fit all those criteria.
They do....as long as you confirm that the course has been renovated in the past five years. The State courses are all located in State Parks (which like the Trail are scattered about). The State had underfunded the Parks and their facilities (including camping, cabins etc) had gone shabby. Then about five years ago, they floated a bond issue to redo all of the facilities across the state. So the courses are being redone one by one...
The other factor that makes Oak Mountain State Park Golf Course such a bargain is that you do not have to endure a slow round...the quality of player is pretty darn good, with most having a pretty decent game and keeping up the pace well. I played it twice after its renovation and had a blast both times....much of this was sentimentality because this is where we played golf after college graduation in the late 70's. There was little quality public golf around here then and we played at "the Oaf" all the time...
If we ever get a group to come here to play a ST event, this will be a course we play. We will also play one Trail course so that everyone will see the difference...