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The Grand National sign at the Robert Trent Jones Trail course in Opelika, Alabama

United States

June 29, 20133 min read2013

Dateline June 29, 2013, Leaving Flagler Beach, Going West

Heading out west for the summer. National Parks, family, friends. The first leg runs from Flagler Beach to Cody, Wyoming for the Stampede on July 4th, then on to Yellowstone. Out of Florida, a stop in Orlando to swap a glow plug sensor, a KOA in Perry. Then a round at Grand National at Opelika, the one RTJ Trail course we did not get to with Pete and Bunny last May. Wind Creek State Park on Lake Martin. The drive through Alabama up to Memphis and on to Jonesboro, Arkansas, where Doris at Craighead Forest Park rented us a lakeside site for $10. The open country of Arkansas and Missouri, the kind that reminds you how big the country still is. Cooper's Landing on the Missouri River was flooded out, so we backed into Binder Park outside Jefferson City for the night. Independence, Missouri and the Truman Library in the morning.

Sunset over Mobile Bay from Meaher State Park, on the last night of the Robert Trent Jones Trail trip

May 27, 20128 min read2012

Dateline May 27, 2012, Capitol Hill, Magnolia Grove, and the End of the Trail

The last week of the Robert Trent Jones Trail trip. Montgomery and the Capitol Hill complex: The Legislator (rained out partway and finished the next afternoon), The Judge with its first tee two hundred feet above the fairway, and The Senator with its 160 pot bunkers. Then down to Mobile and Magnolia Grove for the Crossings and the Falls. On the last round, individual stroke play, Janice shot a 78 from the men's white tees and won outright. Final standings, with Janice giving the most strokes all trip. The Trail ends. The alligator at Meaher State Park does not. And James and Mary's wedding in Gettysburg waits a few weeks ahead.

John, Janice, Pete, and Bunny at the 19th hole after a round at Oxmoor Valley

May 20, 20124 min read2012

Dateline May 20, 2012, Oxmoor Valley

Ninety minutes south from Gadsden to Oak Mountain State Park outside Birmingham, the largest state park in Alabama, nearly ten thousand acres of trails and lakes. Then up to Oxmoor Valley to play the Ridge and the Valley, two of the most photogenic courses on the Trail, both built on former coal-mining country. The Ridge with its 150-foot elevation changes, the Valley running two miles down its namesake. Plus the discovery of sweet tea vodka, a small wildlife parade of turkeys, and an East Hampton neighbor in the campground who came in second in the XTERRA over-50 women's triathlon.

The Silver Lakes clubhouse, rebuilt after the April 2011 tornado

May 17, 20124 min read2012

Dateline May 17, 2012, Hampton Cove and Silver Lakes

Out of Florence and up to Monte Sano State Park, sixteen hundred feet above Huntsville. Two days at Hampton Cove, including the River Course, the only Robert Trent Jones Trail layout in Alabama with not a single bunker. Then eighty miles south to Gadsden and Silver Lakes, which we found in remarkable shape considering an EF4 tornado from the April 27, 2011 Super Outbreak had taken out forty thousand of its trees and the top of its clubhouse a year before. The Backbreaker and the Mindbreaker. And a brown water snake we left to its business.

The 18th green of The Fighting Joe at The Shoals, overlooking Wilson Lake on the Tennessee River

May 12, 20126 min read2012

Dateline May 12, 2012, RTJ Trail Alabama, The Shoals

Out of Henderson Beach to Joe Wheeler State Park on the Tennessee River, where Pete and Bunny Warenski were already set up. Three rounds over four days. The Fighting Joe at The Shoals, all eight thousand yards of it. A rain day for Rogersville antiques and Brooks BBQ (Yelp again). The Schoolmaster the next day. And on Friday, Turtle Point Country Club in Killen, a private RTJ Sr design Janice had played years before in the SWATCA tournament. Plus a quick history of the Nassau bet, and the unlikely story of Joe Wheeler, the only Confederate general to come back and serve under Union colors.

A green at Grand National on the Robert Trent Jones Trail, the iconic checkered pin flag against the water

May 8, 20124 min read2012

Dateline May 8, 2012, The Robert Trent Jones Trail

Off for another adventure. Pete and Bunny, who we met during Walkabout in Alaska, came down to Flagler Beach in January for a few days of golf at home. By the end of the visit, we had a plan: meet in Muscle Shoals in May for a three-week golf fest on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. Twelve courses scheduled, and the Trail itself a quiet small-miracle of state economic development. A short post on the history of how 26 public golf courses, on eleven sites, with 468 holes, ever got built in Alabama in the first place.