Not the Full RTJ
Experience, But Also
Not the Full Cost
Oxmoor Valley SHORT COURSE
Birmingham, Alabama
Date: October 20, 2019
Greens fee: $31
Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is the Newk’s of southern public golf: not great, but not bad either — fine, let’s call it — albeit a bit overpriced; but most of all, predictable. Some of the menu options are better than others, but overall, you know what you’re getting. And although you’re unlikely to leave inspired, you’ll probably be back.
I’ve visited most of the Trail’s sites, and Oxmoor Valley — a 20-minute drive south of downtown Birmingham — is my favorite. Other sites arguably feature superior individual golf courses (Capitol Hill’s Judge course is generally considered the Trail’s best 18 holes), but in my view, Oxmoor Valley offers the most consistently good golf holes on the Trail. This is largely a product of the terrific natural land movement that makes Birmingham a low-key public golf hotspot. And although Oxmoor Valley’s Ridge course usually draws more praise than the Valley course, both are solid from start to finish, and they never disappoint me.
Their greens fees are another story. At some point, without my having noticed, rates all across the RTJ Trail went through the roof. Weekend tee times during October at Oxmoor Valley now run as high as $89; at Capitol Hill, 18 holes on the Judge will sentence you to $98 in hard labor. Ninety-eight dollars! That’s within lag-putting distance of the out-of-state fee at Bethpage Black, and at least $25 north of sensible.
The seventh green at the Short course at Oxmoor Valley, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s 54-hole site in Birmingham, Alabama.
Oxmoor Valley’s Short course, though, remains comfortably south of triple digits. It winds through a landscape similar to that on which the site’s two regulation-length courses are routed, with enjoyably quirkier greens at a much more enjoyable price. A round can be finished in 90 minutes if no one slows you down, and the preposterously wide range of tees (the 10th hole can play as short as 69 yards; the 14th tips out at 253 yards) allows a player to hit as many clubs from her bag as she wants. It’s not the full Oxmoor Valley experience, but it’s close — and it’s not the full Oxmoor Valley greens fee, either.
. . .
I found myself at Oxmoor Valley for the same reason that I usually find myself at Oxmoor Valley: because I couldn’t figure out another place to play. The crisp autumn air that the calendar had been promising for a month finally had made its way to the South, and every dust-covered golf bag in Jefferson County had been dragged out of its garage for a mandatory round of fall golf. Bent Brook was slammed; Limestone Springs just a little too far away for my schedule; and my beloved Highland Park was still closed for a renovation. But as usual, the tee sheet at the Short course was wide open. The only option quickly became the best option.
The course begins near Oxmoor Valley’s high point, its practice facility — then descends dramatically into the valley from which one of its regulation-length courses derives its name. After a gentle introduction, the second hole (224 yards from the back tee, 195 yards from the whites) requires a steeply downhill mid-iron; the third (203 from the back tee, 138 yards from the whites), an even steeper short iron. “Maybe I should move back a set of tees,” I thought to myself, just before blading my shot over the first green. One hole later, I fanned my tee shot irretrievably into the pines. “Why keep score, really?” I asked myself. On the third hole, I badly overclubbed and overshot the green, but after miraculously hacking out to within a foot of the hole, I tapped in for my first par of the day. I started keeping score.
When you’re playing well, par-3 courses allow for a wonderful, meditative rhythm: hit the ball, putt the ball, pull the ball out of the hole, walk to the next tee. I settled in. But thick rough around the greens — one of the Trail’s unfortunate hallmarks — has a way of interrupting rhythm. So it was for the elderly threesome to which I caught up on No. 8 — a beautiful, long, and narrow downhill shot with the navigability of a rifle barrel. They were playing every shot. In the name of pace of play, I passed them by — my rhythm interrupted, and unfortunately, the course’s best holes behind me.
The buzzing of high-voltage power lines alongside the 17th hole is the closing stretch’s only electric quality.
That’s not to say that the back nine — which slowly ascends back toward the practice facility — doesn’t have its moments. The 14th hole is undoubtedly the Short course’s most dramatic: all carry, steeply downhill across a ravine, to a green that runs away to the player’s left. It can play as difficult as you want: the white tees measure just 141 yards, but the most elevated tees (breathtaking view included at no extra charge) are a whopping 253 yards. Standing on the back tee box, I considered trying it for a moment — but finally decided that it wasn’t worth the four dollars that the lost ball would cost me. I pegged it from the orange tee (225 yards), sprayed my driver right of the green, and eventually made bogey.
With the routing’s ascent back uphill nearly complete, the final four holes are mailed in — but by now, so was my enthusiasm. I pulled my final tee shot left of the 18th green, into a heap of rough; after two hacks with a wedge, I didn’t even bother grabbing my putter and tapped in with the edge of my 60-degree. I threw away my scorecard without adding up my shots and left the same way I always leave Newk’s: not exactly fulfilled, but no longer starving either.
. . .
Two miles south of Oxmoor Valley lies Ross Bridge, the epicenter of everything wrong with the RTJ Trail: the course is massive for the sake of being massive, long for the sake of being long, and expensive for the sake of being expensive. It is a thoughtless, price-gouging bore. No other Trail site weaves these flaws together so effortlessly, but an air of something manufactured still pervades most of the Trail. All the courses are nice, but most of the time, there’s something just off about them.
Oxmoor Valley’s Short course doesn’t escape some of the Trail’s flaws: it’s unwalkable, and therefore it lacks the feeling that playing across it is natural. And to be sure, some of the holes’ designs were phoned in. But lots of the shots are undeniably fun, and on most days, you can play uninterrupted for about a third of the cost of one of Oxmoor Valley’s regulation courses. Among imperfect choices, that’s as good as it gets.
. . .
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