Two courses on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail will be getting greens makeovers in 2021, Alabama Golf News reports.
Mike Beverly, chief operating officer of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, detailed forthcoming renovations for Oxmoor Valley’s Valley course and for the Links course at Auburn’s Grand National facility.
Greens on both courses will be re-grassed with TifEagle Bermuda grass. Other modifications will be made on an as-needed basis, Beverly said. Both Grand National in Auburn and Oxmoor Valley in Birmingham are original Trail sites and were due for modifications.
“We’re going to change Oxmoor Valley from the old dwarf Bermuda greens and put in TifEagle,” Beverly said. “We’ll close down the Valley course in mid-April and reopen sometime from mid to late September.”
“We’re looking at possibly doing some tee work and some drainage and opening some approaches while we have it closed,” Beverly said of the Valley course. “We’re going to try to make it a little more playable. Maybe lower a few tees to make it easier to walk up the slopes. Little things like that.”
The Links course at Grand National in Auburn will have its bentgrass greens re-grassed with TifEagle.
“The bentgrass there has been phenomenal for almost 30 years but it is not the right climate for bentgrass,” Beverly said. “It’s always good, but in the summer, it tends to shrink up and get really soft. We are going to get TifEagle in there to get a nice firm, fast playing surface. It is much easier from a maintenance standpoint.”
The Ridge and short courses at Oxmoor Valley will remain open for play, as will the Lake and short courses at Grand National.
Alabama Golf News, which launched in March 2020, is the online news source for all things golf in the Yellowhammer state. Send your releases, news tips or story suggestions to the editor, Gregg Dewalt, at bamagolfnews@gmail.com.
