Alabama Golf Courses & Tee Times

Who runs public golf in Alabama

The Trail is the main event. Its Trail Card is sold only to Alabama residents and people within 100 miles of a Trail site: the 2026 card is $49.95 and brings lower green and cart fees and an 11-day booking window. Alabama State Parks runs three courses: The General at Joe Wheeler and The Oaks at Oak Mountain, both Earl Stone designs, and The Nest on top of Taylor Mountain at Lake Guntersville. Birmingham owns the old munis, Highland Park (Boswell-Highland) and Roebuck Hawkins. The Alabama Golf Association is the USGA's liaison for the state, with 123 member clubs and more than 33,500 members, and it runs the state championships. Juniors can join Youth on Course Alabama for $35 a year. That gets rounds for $5 or less, discounts at 18 Alabama facilities and a free Trail Card. The JGA Tour, run with the Alabama-NW Florida PGA Section, is open to players 6 to 18.

Public courses worth knowing in Alabama

• Grand National: Robert Trent Jones Sr. called it the greatest natural site for golf he'd ever seen. 32 of its 54 holes run along 600-acre Lake Saugahatchee in Opelika, and it has hosted NCAA Division I championships and PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and Korn Ferry events.
• Capitol Hill: Three 18s in Prattville. The Judge's first tee is 200 feet above the fairway over the Alabama River, and the Senator hosts the Epson Tour's Guardian Championship each September.
• Highland Park Golf Course: Alabama's oldest course, from 1903, where a 14-year-old Bobby Jones won the Birmingham Country Club Invitational. In 2021 GOLF Magazine put it on its 30 Best Municipal Golf Courses in America list.
• The General Golf Course at Joe Wheeler State Park: Earl Stone's state park 18 on rolling hills by the river, inside a game sanctuary.
• The Nest Golf Course at Lake Guntersville State Park: State park 18 on top of Taylor Mountain with lake views and elevation change throughout.
• Oak Mountain State Park Golf Course: The Oaks, an Earl Stone par 72 in the state park near Birmingham.

Booking tee times in Alabama: the local rules

Trail tee times are online only as of June 1, 2026: seven days out for the public, 11 for Trail Card holders and annual members. The state parks set their own windows. Oak Mountain opens six days ahead at 12:01 a.m., and Joe Wheeler five days ahead at 9 a.m., with walk-ons taken when there's room.

Getting a tee time in Alabama

Spring and fall are peak season in Alabama. In summer the heat pushes everyone toward early morning, so the first few hours of the day fill before anything else.

Most public courses open their tee sheet a set number of days ahead, often 7 to 14, and many municipal courses give residents or card holders an earlier window. The best weekend-morning times usually go the day they're released. Leagues and outings take blocks of the sheet before the public ever sees them.

Booked-up doesn't mean gone. Plans change: groups cancel ahead of the course's cancellation deadline (often 24 to 48 hours out), players drop when the forecast turns, and a group that shrinks leaves an open spot. Those times quietly come back on the booking page, usually for minutes, not hours.

How to get a tee time when everything's booked