Grand National

Hole in One Guide to Golfing Auburn-Opelika

By Brian Weis

East of Montgomery and hugging the Georgia border, Auburn-Opelika offers a variety of scenic golf courses for all levels of golfer. Named one of the best places to live by U.S. News, Auburn-Opelika was also ranked the #1 golf city in America by Golf Digest.
Courses in Auburn-Opelika include the Robert Trent Jones Trail at Grand National, the Auburn University Club, Moore's Mill Golf Course and more.

Highlights:

Robert Trent Jones at Grand National
When Robert Trent Jones gazed upon what would become Grand National, he said that it was the single greatest site for a golf complex he had ever seen. Grand National boasts two 18-hole championship courses and one short course, set on a picturesque 600 acres.

When the first championship course, Links, opened in 1993, Golf Digest named it the 2nd best new public course in America. Links, along with Lake, the second championship course at Grand National, were both listed in Golf Digest's 40 Super Value courses.
The Links course has a robust layout, with a strong finishing hole.
The Lake course is just as scenic, with its green island 15th hole widely considered to be one of the prettiest holes on the whole trail.
Finally, the short course at Grand National is gorgeous and more than half of the holes flirt with the lakeside.
The Grand National is also neighbor to The Auburn Marriott Opelika Hotel & Conference Center, a RTJ Trail's Resort Collection hotel, an excellent lodging choice for those golfers looking for a full service hotel. Grand National also recently opened its National Village, a beautiful neighborhood on the grounds of Grand National that offers quick access to the resort and the links.

The Auburn University Club
Home to the Auburn Tigers golf team, the Auburn University Club facility is 7,326 yards from the tips. Its well-maintained layout with fast-running greens and narrow fairways make it quite challenging, but rewarding for the experienced golfer.

Moore's Mill Golf Course
The Moore's Mill Club Golf Course features an 18-hole, championship course stretching almost 7,000 yards throughout the rolling terrain and dense hardwoods native to Eastern Alabama. Designed by the Day-Blalock Design team, Moore's Mill offers just enough challenge for advanced golfers, while remaining player friendly for novice golfers.

Auburn-Opelika is centrally located between Atlanta, Birmingham and Montgomery, with golf packages available to suit every taste and budget. Visit the Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau website to plan your trip today.

Revised: 04/05/2014 - Article Viewed 33,222 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.