Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2017 - 20

SOUTHERN ESCAPES
Trail Stats >>
Hops & Stops
Along the Trail
26
golf courses
11
sites across Alabama
1OO
miles of courses
This trip included a traipse
along the North Alabama Craft
Beer Trail, leading to a morethan-usual
number of " Can I
caddy for you? " requests before
I left on the journey. And I must
confess that with 63 holes on
the books and six visits to craft
breweries, this wasn't the most
onerous duty I've had.
Like many of the southern
states, Alabama was behind
the curve on the U.S. craft beer
boom, all of which are now making
up for lost time. Of the six
breweries on my itinerary, the
Back Forty Beer Company of
Gadsden was the oldest (2012)
and most synergistic in the
sense that it is now the " official "
craft brewery of the RTJ Golf
Trail; makes a Cart Barn Pilsner
in cahoots with the Trail; and
includes a discount for rounds
on the bottom of its six-pack
holders.
But there's more to it than
that: When he was 14, Back
Forty founder Jason Wilson had
his mother sign a waiver so he
could go work on the construction
of the Silver Lakes courses.
He was one of the 700 crew
members.
I guess what goes around
comes around. And in Alabama,
thanks to the RTJ Golf Trail,
there's always another round to
go to as well.
Hampton Cove
University with a civil engineering degree
in 1958 and began working for Robert
Trent Jones Sr. a few years later. By the
time Jones closed up shop in 1995, Rulewich
was his chief lieutenant and the actual
designer of many courses credited to
RTJ, including those of the RTJ Golf Trail.
All the works of the pharaohs of Egypt
have nothing on the early years of the
Golf Trail, when there was a construction
crew of more than 700 building 18 golf
courses at seven very different locations
all at the same time. Even now, 25 years
removed from the initial herculean labors,
Rulewich can still shake his head in awe
at the enormity of the job and say with
well-understated meaning: " It was something. "
It remains something-a wonder,
really-that so much was done so quickly
and so well.
The project was the brainchild of Dr.
David G. Bronner, the CEO of the Retirement
Systems of Alabama, which funded
the project and has done very well for the
state ever since, bringing in billions of
tourist dollars. (For more about Bronner,
see Minnesota Golfer, Fall 2009.) Indeed,
the RTJ Golf Trail has since been a model
for other such trails in other states, though
20
MINNESOTAGOLFER Fall 2017
no one has topped the original.
Though technically an Iowa native,
Bronner clearly came by his smarts
in Minnesota: He grew up in Austin,
Minn., where his father ran a pool hall.
He then went on to earn his bachelor's
and master's degrees at Mankato State
University, where he subsequently taught
for two years in the School of Business
and Finance. By 1972, he had earned both
his law degree and Ph.D. at the University
of Alabama-and has been in the Heart of
Dixie ever since.
Strokes for Different Folks
No RTJ Golf Trail site is more than two
hours removed from another in the state,
and with so many routings there is bound
to be something unique wherever one
winds up teeing off. Speaking of tees: every
course on the Trail has five sets of tees,
so sensible choices can lead to pleasurable
rounds.
I felt like a bit of a piker playing a mere
63 holes on the Trail, and only in the
north. However, it did give me a chance
to play at one of the original 1992 sites,
Hampton Cove in Huntsville. Hampton
Cove has three 18-hole tracks, includwww.mngolf.org
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PHOTO
BY JUERGEN BECK
PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLEMMER
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2017

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