Planning a Golf Trip: Robert Trent Jones Trail Sample Itinerary

Posted on by Matthew Jucius

I have to admit that I had never heard of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail until a co-worker of mine suggested I look into it. She’s a very good golfer so I definitely took her advice!

The golf trail is a project to build dozens of golf courses around Alabama with a “build it and they will come” philosophy. The courses are highly rated and look amazing, with every imaginable style of course and layout. The courses are conveniently clustered around the state with most locations having 2 or 3 (or more) courses.

The idea of “the trail” is to play a different amazing course every day. I was intrigued, to say the least, and definitely up to the challenge of planning a sample itinerary that would hit many of the courses.

This could be a much more economical itinerary than the Pebble Beach one. Let’s see what it works out to be!

Sample Itinerary

Day 1 (Friday)

Day 2 (Saturday)

Day 3 (Sunday)

Day 4 (Monday)

Day 5 (Tuesday)

Day 6 (Wednesday)

Day 7 (Thursday)

Day 8 (Friday)

Day 9 (Saturday)

Day 10 (Sunday)

  • Hotel breakfast and second round at Oxmoor Valley
  • Early morning round at Valley course
  • Return to hotel to shower/clean before checkout and drive back to Atlanta (2.5 hours)
  • Return on evening flight arriving in Boston late in the late evening

Cost Breakdown

Flight:

JetBlue flights to take advantage of free checked bag. 4 x 350 = $1400
Note – Using JetBlue credit card signup bonus could cover these costs.

Hotels:

These hotel prices are guesstimates as Marriott doesn’t extend the booking window out far enough. The hotels are all on points or free night certificates so we only have to pay taxes and fees for the Marriott stays. All the hotels come with free breakfast for everyone.

Night 1: Hyatt Place Atlanta Airport – North

Total: 10,000 Hyatt points

This hotel is a low category so it only costs 5000 Hyatt Points per night per room. 2 rooms at this price save good money.

Night 2: Townplace Suites Auburn

Total: 2 x Marriott free night certificates or 50,000 Marriott points

This Marriott affiliated hotel is a good value on points as the cash rate is several hundred dollars. It’s a Saturday night during college football season in a big-time football town so I imagine that’s why. We could use a free night certificate or just use points if we don’t have enough certificates.

Nights 3-7: Spring Hill Montgomery Downtown

Total: 2 x 70,000 points = 140,000 Marriott points

We get to take advantage of the 5th night free on points. The hotel looks like it’s centrally located in Montgomery and there’s free parking. The pictures of the room look like it’s in a renovated mill/factory with high ceilings and unique and interesting space.

While this is longer than I would prefer to stay in this area, we save having to pay for an extra night and by driving on the first night and out the last morning we still get to move to other cities without sacrificing the abilities to play other courses we want.

Nights 8-9: Hyatt Place Birmingham/Hoover

Total: 2 x 5,000 points x 2 rooms = 20,000 Hyatt points

This Hyatt property is only 5000 points/night compared to nightly rates of nearly $175 so points make a lot of sense for these two rooms for two nights.

Total: $300 in estimated taxes and fees for Marriott properties

Golf:

The rates here are estimates I was able to estimate from the website. I would have to call and start a formal reservation to get real numbers. Also, they have some interesting specials that could potentially save quite a bit of money. I’ve made what I believe are generous estimates with the hope that these numbers are high and actual numbers will be lower, but reserve the right to be wrong.

Day 1 – travel
Day 2 – Grand National (Auburn) Lake -> $300
Day 3 – Grand National (Auburn) Links -> $300
Day 4 – Capitol Hill (Prattville) Judge -> $300
Day 5 – Capitol Hill (Prattville) Legislator -> $300
Day 6 – Cambrian Ridge (Greenville) -> $300
Day 7 – Capitol Hill (Prattville) Senator -> $300
Day 8 – Ross Ridge (Birmingham) Ross Ridge -> $500
Day 9 – Oxmoor Valley (Birmingham) Ridge -> $300
Day 10 – Oxmoor Valley (Birmingham) Valley) -> $300

Total:  $3200

Food:

Food in Alabama is going to be cheaper than in San Francisco. Estimating $200/day for lunch, dinner, and snacks as breakfast will be included with our hotels. This may still be a very generous allowance.

Total: 9 * 200 = $1800

Car Rental:

Estimates for a minivan are currently looking to be around $700. Prices fluctuate and we can hopefully find a better rate, but putting this in as a placeholder.

Total: $700

Overall Total:

Total: ~$7400 -> $1850/person

If we used points for the flights we could reduce the costs by about $1400, reducing the per-person cost to closer to $1500.

Points Outlay

  • JetBlue points from credit card signup
  • 2 Marriott free night certificates
  • 140,000 Marriott points from my dad’s account and my own account
  • 30,000 Hyatt points

Thoughts

This trip is significantly cheaper than the Pebble Beach trip (about a third the cost) and still plays some fantastic courses. The trail certainly doesn’t have the same awe factor as Pebble Beach, but we’ve already done that.

That said, there is still a lot of uncertainty in the prices of the golf portions. I had to guess since I wasn’t able to find the prices online and I’m not ready to call to create a reservation yet. This trip is not nearly as luxurious though that was always a perk rather than a requirement for this trip. There will be no presidential suites on this itinerary, but the ones I found look solid. Despite the relatively low cash prices for the hotels, using points still makes a lot of sense which is a big saving on the overall costs. We’ll only be responsible for taxes and fees at Marriott hotels which will be minimal.

Next up a Southern California itinerary.

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Published by Matthew Jucius