A golf course that sat abandoned for more than a decade in Mobile’s Riviere Du Chien neighborhood is on track to reopen by the end of the year under a new name and a substantially different footprint. The former Linksman Golf Course is being rebuilt from the ground up as Cypress Creek Golf Course, with new ownership, new management and a construction budget that has already topped $20 million.
Shane Allen, the golf professional overseeing the project, said the new course bears little resemblance to a simple facelift of the old layout. “This is not a renovation. This is a brand new golf course on top of the old one,” Allen said, describing a rebuild that began more than two years ago and has drawn steady interest from residents who remember the property’s earlier life. For years, locals asked Allen and others involved in the project when the long-shuttered course might reopen, he said, a sign of how visible the abandoned property had become in the surrounding neighborhood.
One of the driving forces behind the rebuild was drainage. The old Linksman course was notorious among longtime players for staying wet well after rain, a persistent maintenance problem that limited playability for much of the year. Allen said the new course was designed specifically to avoid those issues, incorporating updated grading and drainage systems as part of the ground-up construction. The course itself was designed by golf architect Jerry Pate, whose work Allen credited for making the most of the property’s existing terrain.
Cypress Creek is being built as more than a golf-only facility. Along with a full golf course, the property will include tennis courts, pickleball courts and a fishing pier, rounding out a recreation complex aimed at drawing more than just golfers to the site. That mix reflects a broader trend among newer golf developments nationally, which increasingly pair a course with amenities meant to appeal to families and non-golfers alike, helping a property generate activity throughout the week rather than relying solely on tee times.
Golf has long been part of Mobile’s recreational identity, with several public and private courses scattered across the metro area, but a facility sitting idle for more than ten years represented a rare stretch of prime, already-developed land going unused. Allen said watching the site rebuilt from scratch has been a distinct experience compared with a typical renovation, and he expects strong local interest once the course opens. “I really think the people of Mobile are going to be excited when they see the new golf course,” he said.
Barring delays, Cypress Creek Golf Course is expected to be open and operating before the end of the year, giving Mobile another full-service recreation destination and returning a long-dormant piece of the Riviere Du Chien landscape to active use.