An enjoyable Southern golf trek included a four-day visit to the Gulf Shores, Alabama area on the Gulf of Mexico coast. Once a quick stop for truckers and other nomads, the former hamlet of Gulf Shores is now a family-style vacation resort -- a miniature Ocean City without all the highrises.

Kiva Dunes

Because of this change in demographics and travel patterns, a number of leading golf courses have been built in Gulf Shores. At the top of the list is Kiva Dunes, named Golf Digest's #2 best new public course for 1995 and one of the top 75 upscale courses in the U.S. It is also named Alabama's top public course.

A Jerry Pate creation, Kiva Dunes was constructed entirely on sand dunes on a thin strip of land separating Mobile Bay and the Gulf. Adjacent to a wildlife refuge, the course was designed for all levels of play, and it is a real test from the back at nearly 7092 yards. Fickle ocean winds make this course doubly challenging. Earlier this year, a group of Nike Tour players came here to practice and said it was the best conditioned course they had ever played.

Kiva is one of the best conditioned courses you'll ever play. Its tifdwarf greens are outstanding and the Bermuda 419 fairways are overseeded in the fall with rye, presenting different playing characteristics in the winter versus the summer. Because of the almost daily winds that can kick up to 25 knots and more, all but the longest hitters should stay away from the tips and play from the blues (6500).

Cotton Creek, The Woodlands, and others

The Gulf Shores area also boasts a number of other outstanding layouts including Peninsula, Rock Creek, and Timber Creek all designed by Alabama native son Earl Stone; Cotton Creek, a 27-hole Arnold Palmer design; and The Woodlands, a 6400-yard lake-dotted course created by PGA player Larry Nelson that includes a fairway with two oak trees smack in the middle.

Six short miles from Kiva Dunes, Peninsula is a development course with a strong front nine and coastal features. Rock Creek in nearby Fairhope, about a 25-minute drive from Gulf Shores, is an outstanding course, offering elevation changes atypical of this area. With a 73.8 rating and a 144 slope, Timber Creek off I-10 near Mobile Bay may be the supremist test on the Alabama coast. Cotton Creek on Hwy 59 just minutes from Gulf Shores is scenic and more forgiving than Kiva Dunes.  Cotton Creek, Peninsula, Rock Creek, Glenlakes and The Woodlands are fun courses that might well appeal to the more casual golfer.

Lost Key and Perdido Bay

Finally, if you like very tight courses, try Lost Key, a 6800-yard tester also designed by Arnold Palmer on Perdido Key in the Florida panhandle, just 25 minutes from Gulf Shores. A very well maintained course on sensitive wildlife terrain including very narrow landing areas and plenty of marshes, it recently was awarded Audubon International's signature status.

And though I didn't get to play it on this trip, another course I have put on my "to play" list and which should be on yours too, is Perdido Bay in nearby Pensacola, Florida, site of the former Pensacola Open.

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