ALABAMA | GEORGIA | LOUISIANA | MISSISSIPPI | TENNESSEE

Alabama
North Alabama
Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones (RTJ) Golf Trail is a collection of 432 holes of championship golf on 10 sites around Alabama. Enjoy unexpected delights such as bagpipers at sunset in Birmingham or playing on the third longest course in the world after dining on world-class cuisine at Alabama’s only revolving restaurant in Florence. These two Robert Trent Jones courses include resorts featuring luxury guest rooms and European spas. Other Robert Trent Jones courses include Huntsville and Anniston, which is located just two hours from the Atlanta International Airport.

Central Alabama
You can play three Robert Trent Jones locations in Central Alabama. Driving from Atlanta airport, you’re only 90 minutes to the first location just inside Alabama in Opelika. The following day travel to Prattville where the RTJ course features stunning vistas along the 200-acre glistening backwaters of the Alabama River. Your third RTJ course in Central Alabama is located in Greenville, just south of Montgomery. You can play most of the RTJ courses for about $40 a round.

South Alabama
Alabama’s Gulf region has also gained popularity as a golfing destination. Starting in Mobile, you can play at the Magnolia Grove RTJ course while staying at the historic Battle House, a Renaissance Hotel, or the Riverview Plaza Hotel, both in downtown Mobile. Then travel across Mobile Bay to the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club and Spa near Fairhope. Besides these RTJ Trail golf choices, there is Kiva Dunes in Gulf Shores, named the second best new course in America when it opened.

Georgia
There are more than 400 golf courses to visit throughout the Peach state. The keen golfer can choose to tee-off on any type of course in almost any environment - city, mountain, lake or coast. Georgia features world-class courses designed by champions Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and Tom Fazio - while Augusta is, of course, home to one of the world’s best known tournaments - the Masters. Enthusiasts can also visit the city’s Golf Hall Of Fame, which features tributes to such legendary golfers as Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer. Dramatic elevational changes define the courses in the North Georgia Mountains region.

World-class resorts and exciting layouts are featured in the Atlanta Metro region. Challenging, traditional courses with towering pines and winding waterways are offered in the Southern Rivers region of west Georgia. Scottish links-style and lakeside courses abound in the Historic South region of east and central Georgia. Gorgeous seaside layouts and winding marsh tracts provide the challenge on the Coast of Georgia. Also dotting the golf landscape are Georgia's seven state park golf courses.
For more information, go to: www.georgia.org/golf

Louisiana
Monroe
Four years ago, the Audubon Golf Trail was open to the public and like a pot of red beans simmering on the stove, it’s only improved with time. Today, the Trail has 12 world-class courses (www.AudubonGolf.com). Two of those are near Monroe, in northeast Louisiana. The newest is Black Bear, a 7,200 yard championship layout overlooking a 3,000 acre lake full of other recreational activities and lodging. West of Monroe is Calvert Crossing, a stunning, stress-relieving course of tall pines and stately oaks - a “shot-maker’s golf course”.

Lake Charles
Lake Charles, in southwest Louisiana, is home to two superior courses, just 10 minutes from each other. Situated near the Creole Nature Trail National Scenic Byway, Gray Plantation Golf Club is on the Calcasieu River, amid 60 acres of lakes. Golf Magazine ranked it in “the top three among 50 best US courses for $50 or less.” Nearby, on the grounds of the upscale L’Auberge du Lac Hotel & Casino, is the Contraband Bayou Golf Club. This Tom Fazio-designed course, emphasising the marshland features of the Louisiana environment, is within yards of the hotel.

New Orleans
Golf aficionados are surprised to learn that the jazz is hot, but so is the quality of courses in New Orleans. The big new-kid-on-the-block is the Tournament Players Club (TPC) course, just 15 minutes from the French Quarter. In historic uptown, the new Audubon Park Executive Golf Course is spread across 81 tree-lined acres on St. Charles Avenue and is the country’s only course accessible by streetcar. Across the lake from New Orleans, the Carter Plantation offers play through three distinct Louisiana landscapes - live oaks, cypress wetlands and upland pine forests.

Mississippi
Mississippi’s Magnolia Golf Trail
Among the more than 140 golf courses in Mississippi is the The Magnolia Golf Trail that features 14 challenging courses that golfers of all ages and abilities can play. These courses are listed by Golf Digest, Golf Week and Golf Magazine as some of the best golf in the South, and indeed, the country. These kinds of courses are supposed to be reserved for Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, California or Arizona. But you'll find them right here in Mississippi.

You can score your way around courses designed by such well-known course architects as Arnold Palmer and Jerry Pate. And no matter what your handicap, we have courses that will make you either bless the day or curse the day you first picked up a club. Mississippi's Magnolia Golf Trail offers you some of the premier resort courses in the South, and arguably, in the country.
If you've never heard of the Magnolia Golf Trail, we're not surprised. We're new. It means our courses are less crowded. Tee times are easy to get. And our Green Fees aren't inflated. This is Mississippi's Golf at its finest, and arguably some of the best golf in the South.
For more information, go to: www.visitmississippi.org/golf

Tennessee
The Bear Trace Golf Trail
Tennessee has long been famed for its pioneers and widely recognised by visitors for its scenic topography and natural beauty. Now, the Volunteer state is again living up to its reputation for trailblazing with the creation of five spectacular golf courses designed by America's golfing legend, Jack Nicklaus.

The Bear Trace; the name itself pays the ultimate tribute to the most noted name in golf and to the historic Natchez Trace, which originates in Tennessee. The symbolism is clear. Jack Nicklaus, "the Golden Bear," has contributed as much to the game of golf as any player in history, earning worldwide acclaim as a player and as a golf-course designer. The Natchez Trace, as a well-travelled thoroughfare, played an instrumental role in the growth of the
South in the late 1700s.

The present Bear Trace line-up features challenging layouts at five select Tennessee locations: Cumberland Mountain near Crossville, Harrison Bay near Chattanooga, Tims Ford near Winchester, Chickasaw near Henderson, and Ross Creek Landing near Clifton. Each Bear Trace course provides golfers the opportunity to play championship golf at truly affordable rates. For more information, go to: www.beartrace.com

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