MOBILE, Ala. — Two golf courses will open in the Mobile-Baldwin area within eleven days of each other this fall, joining a list of local courses that have completed or are working through significant renovations. Taken together, the activity amounts to the busiest stretch the region’s golf market has seen in years.
Cypress Creek, formerly The Linksman, in the Riviere Du Chien area near Halls Mill Road, has scheduled a soft opening for Wednesday, Sept. 23, with a full opening soon afterward. On Oct. 3, Longleaf Golf Club off Highway 225 in Spanish Fort — a course originally slated to open years ago — will finally do so.
The Post-2020 Surge
Golf enjoyed a resurgence nationally during the COVID shutdown because it was one of the few sports that could be played while maintaining distance between participants. The growth continued afterward, and locally it has been pronounced.
What made that surge durable rather than temporary is that it brought in players who stayed. Golf had been losing participants for years before 2020; the pandemic reversed that, and the industry has since worked to retain the players it gained.
The Mobile County-Baldwin County area has long offered a good variety of courses. That variety is now expanding.
“Golf in Mobile is definitely booming, and we’re happy to see it,” said Heron Lakes golf pro Chris Colburn, who joined the club in July from Azalea City. “With Longleaf opening up and Cypress Creek opening up, it’s going to be good for Mobile … I don’t ever think you can have too many good golf courses in a city. I think Mobile is starting to hit that stretch of good quality golf courses. So I think more courses is only a good thing.”
Longleaf Golf Club
Longleaf will open to the public, but Regi Hill, director of golf operations, said the facility will go members-only once it reaches 350 memberships.
The layout is expected to be demanding.
“It ain’t easy,” Hill said. “Stay out of the rough.”
Work continues ahead of the opening, including completion of a temporary pro shop. Green maintenance has changed, cart paths are being finished, and the practice area is receiving final work. Hill said recent rains have “been a blessing.”
Having spent several years on the property getting the course to this point, Hill said the opening cannot come soon enough.
“We’re champing at the bit. We can’t wait. It’s what we’ve been building it for,” Hill said. “The excitement level can’t get any higher. … It’s a different layout, a different terrain. It plays different than anything around here, in my book.”
Cypress Creek
Shane Allen, director of golf at Cypress Creek, described similar anticipation.
Jerry Pate’s design team redesigned the layout, flipping the previous nines — The Linksman’s back nine is now the front nine, and vice versa — and many holes have a new look. The front nine will have four par-3 holes and three par-5s.
“I am more than happy,” Allen said of the course’s development. “My superintendent [Trey Woods] has done a phenomenal job, and his staff, getting this course ready. I can’t wait for the people of Mobile to see this because it is going to be something that you are not going to believe.”
A practice range across the railroad tracks is ready as soon as the construction crew departs. That area also includes pickleball and tennis courts ready for play. Water comes into play on 15 of the 18 holes, and a temporary clubhouse is nearly complete.
A County-Owned Course With a Specific Purpose
Cypress Creek is owned by Mobile County, and Mobile County Commissioner Randall Dueitt said the main purpose for reopening it was to provide a course where golf teams from county schools could practice and play home matches.
That is a meaningful commitment. High school golf programs need access to a course, and paying green fees at private or commercial facilities is expensive enough to limit which schools can field competitive teams. A county-owned course dedicated in part to school use removes a cost barrier that determines whether a program exists.
The unusual routing note — four par-3s and three par-5s on the front nine — departs from the conventional balance and should make for a nine that plays differently from most in the area.
TimberCreek’s Rebuild
TimberCreek in Spanish Fort, once among the region’s most popular courses, went through a period in which conditions fell below its former standard. Russ Bloom of Bloom Golf Management took over operations of the 27-hole facility in October.
The scope of work has been extensive: a major renovation of all 27 holes, substantial tree and underbrush removal, cart path and bridge repairs throughout the property, bunker repair and what Bloom called “fundamental changes.” A new irrigation pump system required clearing 500 cubic yards of material from the irrigation supply pond. The course also had drainage, sinkhole and erosion issues.
“TimberCreek is a special golf course, and we intend on getting it back to as good as it ever was in the early 2000s, when it was, at points, probably the best public golf course in Alabama,” Bloom said. “We think probably by next summer, it’ll be back in very, very good condition. It’s good right now. It’s way better than it was, and it’s been well received, but we still have a ways to go.”
The Magnolia course at TimberCreek has been closed since April for major renovations, with the plan to keep 18 holes open at all times until work is complete. The facility also features the Dogwood and Pines layouts.
That detail — irrigation, drainage, erosion — is where course conditions actually come from. Golfers notice greens and fairways. What determines both is water: whether it can be delivered where it is needed and moved away from where it is not. A course with a failing irrigation system and drainage problems cannot be fixed with mowing.
Heron Lakes
Bloom’s company also operates Heron Lakes, where the decision was made to shut down the 45,000-square-foot clubhouse, which Bloom said had been “just eating money for a very long time.”
Golf operations moved to the tennis pro shop, and improvements were made to the grill and pool areas. Course work has included the recently completed renovation of hole No. 5.
Closing a clubhouse of that size is a decision more clubs face than make. A 45,000-square-foot building carries utilities, insurance, maintenance and staffing whether or not anyone is in it, and clubhouses built for an earlier era of club dining frequently generate a fraction of the revenue they cost. Moving operations into a smaller space redirects that money toward the golf course.
“We’re just trying to bring Heron back up to being one of the most competitive golf courses in Mobile,” Colburn said. “It’s been really good. We’re turning small steps into sprints eventually. So that’s what we’re gunning for here. Just taking it day by day, improving day by day. And as long as today’s better than yesterday, I think we’re doing good.”
The Broader List
Courses undergoing or recently completing renovations and improvements include TimberCreek in Spanish Fort, Heron Lakes Country Club in Mobile, Azalea City Golf Course in Mobile and Quail Creek Golf Course in Fairhope.
Mobile’s Magnolia Grove Golf Course, part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, renovated both of its 18-hole courses in recent years, as did Lakewood Golf Club in Point Clear, also on the RTJ Trail. Renovations have also taken place at the Country Club of Mobile.
The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is worth noting in this context. Established in the 1990s as an economic development initiative, it placed championship-caliber public courses across Alabama specifically to draw golf tourism. Magnolia Grove and Lakewood anchor the trail’s coastal presence, and their renovations reflect continued investment in that strategy.
What It Means for Players
Local golfers have long had options based on skill level, availability and cost. Those options are expanding in every direction at once.
A player now has a county-owned course reopening with a Jerry Pate redesign, a long-delayed club finally opening in Spanish Fort, a 27-hole facility working back toward its early-2000s standard, two RTJ Trail courses freshly renovated, and several municipal and semi-private courses improving.
Colburn’s point is the operative one for the market: quality courses attract players, and players attract further investment. A region with a handful of well-conditioned courses draws golf travel in a way that a region with one does not.
Key Dates
- Sept. 23: Cypress Creek soft opening (full opening to follow)
- Oct. 3: Longleaf Golf Club opens off Highway 225 in Spanish Fort