When visiting Alabama, it is important to walk around and just yell Roll Tide whenever you get the chance. People respond very well to it and it makes you feel like a local. When visiting the golf courses of Alabama it is important to wear shorts. Folks, it gets hot in Alabama.
First up on the sweat fest, was Limestone Springs. "The Lime" as I would lovingly refer to the course throughout my round, was a nice warmup round for what would be a quick state. Don't be fooled, each round packs a serious punch. So put on your headgear and grab some suntan lotion, because it's coming in hot, fast, and hard. It's 5 rounds with Alabama!
This RGV Tour Title Bout is offically scheduled for 5 rounds of golfing and is brought to you by RGV Tour productions. Round 1 is your only chance to take a breather with "The Lime". However, I did I take plenty of punches during my round, carding 9 penalty strokes.
Round 2 starts off with a couple of jabs and ends with a couple of uppercuts. The Ledges provides plenty of chances to score early, but really earns it's stripes as a contender with a very strong finish. If you can escape the final four holes without a bogie, you have a good chance of making it to round 3 with a lead on the judge's scorecards.
After the bell rang on round 2, RGV Tour Pro, Todd Murphree and I decided to pop a couple drives off of the RGV's rooftop range. In a foolish move, I stepped on the rooftop sunlight and nearly put my foot into my bedroom. "Well that's gonna be a problem" I said as I inspected the damage. 30 seconds later, we heard a pretty good clap of thunder as a storm was rolling in quick.
Not wanting to have a rain storm directly onto my bed, we hustled to the nearby Target store and fixed the sunlight in the parking lot with some glue and an umbrella as the rain began to poor down. Just like that the Tour was back in the game and ready for round 3.
My opponent in round 3 was PGA Tour heavyweight Zach Sucher and we were taking on Shoal Creek. The good news is that Zach was coming off of an injury and was only putting his short game on display. I was going to hit the drives and he was going to play from my ball once we got around the green. This should give you a pretty good idea of where the big difference lies when it comes to RGV Tour Players and PGA Tour players. Somehow, Zach managed to shoot 11 shots better than me using my tee balls and most of my approach shots. I wasn't knocked out, but I was definitely falling behind in the title bout.
Be sure to tune into the US Women's Open this year as it heads to Shoal Creek
I got my senses back together and headed into round 4 at Pursell Farms' FarmLinks. I was meeting up with the Pursell twins, Martin and Parker! In a surprise twist, Martin & Parker were actually awarded the "Gentlemen of The RGV Tour" award in the middle of round 4. These two guys were some of the most hospitable and gracious folks the tour has encountered to date.
As far as the RGV Tour is concerned FarmLinks is probably the best option for public access golf in the state of Alabama. The round of golf is fair, fun, and gorgeous.
Congratulations, if you have made it this far into the post and are still standing. But no matter what you do next, round 5 is gonna provide the knockout punch. It's the Country Club of Birmingham and it was an instant RGV Tour favorite.
Right away, you have 3 legendary architects teaming up on you swinging away. With the original design created by Donald Ross, Pete Dye and Robert Trent Jones would add touches as the years went by. Just like that, I went down for the count. What a fantastic way to end 5 rounds with Alabama.
The final hole in Alabama was one of my favorites, strong Dye vibes emanate from the mounding on the right hand side..
Thanks for jumping into the Alabama Title Bout with The RGV Tour. Here is a link to The Mike Tyson fight in Punch Out.