Drove 374 miles
After driving almost 900 miles over the last two days, today's journey will seem like a cakewalk. I was initially planning to play golf in northwestern Alabama and then go up into Tennessee to Nashville. After being alone on the road for this long, Nashville can wait and hopefully the weather will cooperate the rest of the way (I've been REALLY lucky with that aspect) and I'll be home the first week of August.
The highway through the Florida panhandle is relatively straight and the land is quite flat. You can see why they always get flooding in this area as many of the low spots near the highway are below sea level. Most of my drive today is through the panhandle and after crossing the long bridge over Mobile Bay I have to drive through a tunnel (?) to get into Mobile. I decided to stop at a grocery store and load up on Yuengling Beer. I filled up 1/2 of the back seat of my car with it (I STILL HAVE A LOT OF IT) and headed toward the golf course. I like Yuengling lager and it isn't sold west of the Mississippi YET. Yuengling is the oldest and largest American owned brewery in the country since Budweiser sold out to Inbev, several years ago.
Mobile is another really old city and and much of it could use a coat of paint. The golf course is outside of town to the west and for some reason my car's GPS sent me to the maintenance entrance. It took a while to get to the clubhouse and when I got there it was a pretty good climb up the steps to get to the pro shop.
There are two courses here at Magnolia Grove, Crossings and The Falls. I think both of them are on the Robert Trent Jones golf trail (RTJ trail) in Alabama. Jones is another famous golf course architect and I have played several of his courses. Mostly they are good, but they are usually tough and he did design the course in West Virginia that I didn't like at all! (His son, RTJ, Jr. designed Chambers Bay near Tacoma, and I think it's a masterpiece.) Crossings was no different. Because of the recent rains it was cart paths only (YUK!), but on this hilly golf course I could understand it because of the damage carts would do to this wet course.
I got paired with Phillip and Justin, a couple of really nice guys who could both play and hit it a LOT better than I do. Green fee with cart was $87. IF you ever want to go play the RTJ trail in Alabama, IF you buy the discount card for the trail, it will pay for itself after two rounds golf. If I am ever in the situation to buy the discount card/pass I will certainly do it, but this time my Alabama golf is one and done.
Nice golf course, but it just kicked my butt and the wet ground didn't help me at all. I'm a low ball hitter, particularly off the tee and I need roll on my shots to play decently. Most of the tee shots were uphill, all of them were wet and I didn't make a single par on this golf course. despite needing only 36 putts in the round. It just took me too long to get to the greens.
I was smart enough to play the correct tees, the silver at 5660 yards, but the slope (122) and rating (67.1) will tell you it wasn't going to be a piece of cake from these tees either. There are 5 sets of tees ranging from 5261 yards to 7212 (slope 139, rating 73.7) and I KNOW Margaret would NOT have liked this course.
The lightning sirens went off as we were finishing the 15th hole. When that happens EVERYONE must exit the golf course and get back to the clubhouse asap. The minimum wait to get back on the course after the (automatic lightning detector) sirens go off is 30 minutes. Even though the clubhouse was packed I was able to get lunch in that 1/2 hour and Phillip and Justin had things to do so I knew they weren't going to finish.
I had followed those guys into the clubhouse in my cart, but I was a little confused as to where I needed to go to get back to the 16th tee. I figured it out before the guys behind me were done with 15 so I didn't make them wait.
Because the golf course is west of town, it was basically right on the highway to my next destination, Hattiesburg, MS. When I got to my motel and checked in I asked the desk clerk where the best BBQ in town was. He told me "Letha's", but they had recently changed locations and he wasn't sure where they were at now.
After a few false starts, I found Letha's in a small town (Petal) about 7 miles east of Hattiesburg. They had moved into an old chain restaurant building and had absolutely NO DECOR at all. Most of their business was takeout, and the spare features of the inside dining area were surely part of the reason. I have eaten BBQ in many places and states, near home, already on this trip, and more to try on this trip, BUT THIS WAS THE BEST BBQ I HAVE EVER HAD!! I would go back there in an instant.
It wasn't raining when I went into Letha's, but it was pouring when I left. Hard enough for full blast wipers and speed well below the speed limit. I made my way back to the hotel and went to bed, another long day done. Tomorrow there will be golf in western Mississippi.
Randy’s golf course ratings play again could recommend Price
Prairieview GC (Byron, IL) 5 YES YES $
The Boulder Course (Winchester, VA) 5 YES YES $$
Wine Valley (Walla Walla, WA) 5 YES YES $$$
The Walker Course (Clemson, SC) 5 YES YES $$
Dakota Winds (Hankinson, ND) 5 YES YES $$
The Links at Greystone (Walworth, NY) 4.5 YES YES $$
Slammer & Squire GC 4.5 YES YES $$$ (St. Augustine, FL)
Raccoon Creek (Littleton, CO) 4.5 YES YES $$
Brooks Golf (Okoboji, IA) 4 YES YES $$
The Legacy (Springfield, TN) 4 YES YES $
Awarii Dunes (Kearney, NE) 4 YES YES $$
Chicopee CC (Chicopee, MA) 4 YES YES $
The Architects Club (Phillipsburg, NJ) 4 YES YES $$
Lake Panorama Nat. (Panora, IA) 4 no*1 YES $$
Heritage Shores (Bridgeville, DE) 4 YES YES $$
Houston Oaks (Paris, KY) 4 YES YES $
Eagles Landing (Ocean City, MD) 4 YES YES $$
Brandon GC (Brandon, SD) 4 YES YES $
Viroqua Hills GC (Viroqua, WI) 4 YES YES $
Magnolia Grove Crossings GC 4 YES YES $$$
Portland GC (Portland, CT) 4 YES YES $
Green Valley CC (Portsmouth, RI) 4 YES YES $$
Snow Hill CC (New Vienna, OH) 4 YES YES $
Links at Union Vale (Lagrangeville, NY) 4 YES*2 YES $$$
Bear Slide GC (Cicero, IN) 4 no YES $$
Pilgrim's Oak (Peach Bottom, PA) 3.5 YES YES $
Lochmere G & CC (Tilton, NH) 3.5 YES YES $$
Rivers Edge (Burley, ID) 3.5 YES ? YES $
Eastern Hills (Kalamazoo, MI) 3.5 YES YES $
Brattleboro CC (Brattleboro, VT) 3.5 YES ? YES $$
Monroe CC (Monroe, NC) 3.5 YES YES $
Martindale CC (Auburn, ME) 3.5 YES ? YES $$$
Birch Creek (Smithfield,UT) 3.5 no good golfers only $
Fort Myers CC (Fort Myers, FL) 3 YES YES $
Kimball Golf Club (Kimball, MN) 3 no no $
Buffalo Golf Club (Buffalo, WY) 3 no no $$
Pryor Creek (Huntley, MT) 3 no no $ Johnny Walker Course (there’s also a Country Club course, but you need to play with a member!)
The Brookside Club (Bourne, MA) 2 no no $$
Crosswinds Championship GC 1.5 no no $ (Savannah, GA)
Jones Course (Wheeling, WV) 1 no no $$$
Langston GC (Washington D.C.) 1 no no $$
*1 = would play again if a different yardage was offered, with slope and course ratings
*2 = would move up a tee and NOT pay weekend green fee. M-Th fee is $ 77 and $ 61 after 2 p.m.
These last two are the same hole, but from different distances / angle.
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