Kiva Dunes Golf Club

About Kiva Dunes Golf Club

Kiva Dunes is a links-style resort course on the Alabama Gulf Coast, and it's fully open to the public. Pate set at least five tees on most holes among the wetland grasses and waste bunkers, so you can play it anywhere from about 5,000 to 7,100 yards. As Links Magazine put it in 2021, length isn't the problem: the wind, the dunes and the untouched vegetation are. The map survey counts about 78 bunkers and water near seven holes, three of them with a carry, and there's only about 9 feet between the high and low points, so it's flat and exposed. Course character from OpenStreetMap contributors' survey data.

The origin story is a good one. At the University of Alabama course, a student named Jim "Scrappy" Edgemon made a hole-in-one on the par-3 16th while another student was practicing putts on the green. The putter was Jerry Pate, who went on to win the 1974 U.S. Amateur and the 1976 U.S. Open. Pate had seen the Kiva land back in 1985, and when Edgemon developed it two decades after that meeting, he skipped the big-name architects and hired his friend. It opened in 1995.

It got noticed fast: in December 1995 Golf Digest named it second on its list of Best New Public Courses in the U.S. and ranked it 58th among America's Top 100 Public Courses in 2003. in 2017 Golf Advisor ranked it the top public course in Alabama, and Golf Digest put it fifth on its 2018 list of the best courses in Alabama, private clubs included.

It's one of 24 courses Yoink watches in the Gulf Shores & Pensacola area, and the closest alternative is Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club, about 7 miles away — handy when your first choice is booked solid.

What it's like to play Kiva Dunes Golf Club

You'll carry water off the tee or into the green on 3 holes. There are about 78 bunkers out there, well above average, so a good bunker game pays. A creek or river runs through the property and comes into play on 6 holes.

Course character from OpenStreetMap contributors' survey data (ODbL).

Booking a tee time at Kiva Dunes Golf Club

Green fees use dynamic pricing, so the price moves with the day and time; compare a few slots before you book. Check in at the golf shop inside Kiva Lodge. The dress code is strict: collared shirt, no denim.

How to get a tee time at Kiva Dunes Golf Club