ESPN reports Erik McCoy’s sports hernia surgery is scheduled at Andrews Sports Medicine in Birmingham:
Erik McCoy is having his surgery today at the Andrews Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala. I believe Dr. Benton Emblom’s team will be doing the surgery.
New Orleans Saints center Erik McCoy is scheduled for surgery Wednesday at Andrews Sports Medicine in Birmingham, Ala., per ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. She also noted that Dr. Benton Emblom’s team will likely be doing the surgery, though it could be someone else. Dr. Emblom specializes in sports hernia surgery, and as Terrell added in a further notice, this is what McCoy’s injury is classified as.
The timeline of 6 to 8 weeks makes sense in this diagnoses as it matches up with the timeline of a sports hernia, and it is good to know he will be in good hands at that medical facility. Some may recognize the name of the facility as it was co-founded by Louisiana native and LSU graduate Dr. James Andrews, a renowned orthopedic surgeon who has founded many medical centers in his career.
Alabama softball will play five games this weekend in the Green and Gold Classic
Patrick Murphy and No. 10 Alabama are set to make the short trip to Birmingham on Friday to participate in the Green and Gold Classic that UAB is hosting.
The Crimson Tide enter the weekend with a perfect 11-0 record and will compete in a total of five games over three days.
Alabama returns a talented roster from last year’s World Series appearance but also has several newcomers who have already made an impact in the early portion of the season.
Below is the game-by-game information for each of the Crimson Tide’s five matchups this weekend in the Green and Gold Classic.
Editors Note: Only the matchups with UAB will be available to stream on ESPN+.
Ross Bridge near Birmingham, Alabama, is slated to reopen this fall with new putting surfaces.
Ross Bridge, one of the highest-ranked golf courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, will reopen Oct. 13 after a complete renovation of its greens and bunkers.
The layout just outside Birmingham ranks No. 4 in Alabama on Golfweek’s Best list of top public-access courses in each state. The course wraps around the Renaissance Birmingham Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa, a gorgeous AAA 4-Diamond Approved Hotel. With plenty of ground movement in its valley setting, Ross Bridge can be stretched to more than 8,100 yards off the back tee, making it one of the longest courses in the world.
The work to the greens was necessitated by an accidental poisoning of many of the greens a year ago. The operators of the Trail opted to start from scratch, switching the putting surfaces from bent grass to a much more heat-tolerant TifEagle Bermuda grass. That switch should result in much firmer and smoother green surfaces.
Every bunker on the course also was renovated with fresh drainage systems, and several cart paths were relocated. Architectural changes were also made to Nos. 1, 2, 10, 14 and 18, but details of those changes weren’t specified in a media release announcing the opening date.
Alabama MBB continues to add to their gauntlet out-of-conference schedule’s
Under the guidance of Nate Oats, the Alabama basketball program is thriving in ways never seen before. From elite recruiting classes to SEC Championships to first-round draft prospects, Oats has completely changed the trajectory of the program. By the time Avery Johnson left Tuscaloosa it felt like the program was in a poor place, but stealing Oats from Buffalo was one of Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrnes’s best moves to date.
One of the things that have made the Tide so successful and fun to watch is the strength of their out-of-conference scheduling. In 2022, Alabama took on UCONN, Michigan State, Gonzaga, Houston, and North Carolina all before even getting into SEC play.
The Crimson Tide has announced another massive out-of-conference game for the future as they will take on the Arizona Wildcats in 2024 at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, AL as part of the CM Newton Classic on Dec. 18th. Arizona has been one of the best college basketball programs since the beginning of the 2000s and getting them to come into the state of Alabama will be can’t-miss TV for all the Tide faithful.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.
Hilarious Mac Jones story from his national title season
Mac Jones has been a fiery competitor long before he ever stooped foot on the University of Alabama campus. Jones decided to join the Tide despite being in the same recruiting class as Tua Tagovailoa and having to wait three years to get his opportunity to play.
In 2020, Jones finally got his chance to take the field and never looked back. He went undefeated, led Alabama to a national title victory and finished third in the Heisman Trophy race. One of the all-time greatest seasons in Alabama history, but it wasn’t by accident.
Jones constantly worked when nobody was watching and when nobody even knew how well he could really play. Former Alabama wide receiver, Mac Hereford, shares a hilarious story from their national title season that shows how committed Jones is to his craft.
Alabama was returning from their end-of-season banquet after the SEC title game when Jones pulled Hereford aside in the Alabama training facility to catch a few balls. Hereford, in a full suit from the banquet, started catching a few passes before jogging some quick routes. Before you know it, Hereford had taken off his suit and pants and was down to only compression shorts running routes in Mal Moore just to get in those extra reps.
It doesn’t matter when or where, Jones is a grinder and is always going to get his reps in. His tenacious mentality is a big part of why the Patriots selected him No. 15 overall in the 2021 draft.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.
Ever dream of saving an abandoned golf course? An Alabama prison officer made it happen.
ALPINE, Ala. – Ever seen an abandoned golf course and wondered, is it still possible to play golf there? Is it salvageable? How much would it take to reopen, at what cost?
With hundreds of courses having closed in the U.S. after 2008’s market meltdown, there are plenty of such overgrown properties – including dozens of layouts by famous designers. Nothing comes from many of these properties except memories and maybe a few dreams of golf renovation.
Rarely, those dreams of resuscitating an abandoned layout become reality. It just takes the right person.
Enter Tony Parton, a former federal corrections officer living in rural Alabama. He had no plans to take over a failed course. But he loved golf – and one particular layout.
It was called Alpine Bay. The majority of Alabama golfers never heard of it, and most of the minority who knew of it never bothered to play it. They couldn’t tell you how to get there or even if it was still open.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama, after the course was salvaged and reopened (Golfweek)
Located in east-central Alabama 44 miles east of downtown Birmingham near the southern shore of Logan Martin Lake (part of the broad Coosa River water basin), Alpine Bay Golf Club originally was planned to have two 18-hole courses. But as funds for a major resort development were lacking, only one of the two courses opened in 1972.
That course had a lot going for it: a par-72, 6,518-yard championship layout designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., namesake of Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail that was built decades later. Moreover, Jones built it with assistance of his son Rees Jones, then in his early 30s, who became a prizewinning course designer and brand name in his own right, as well as young Roger Rulewich, the architect who two decades later would actually design most of the courses on the Trail.
Troubled financially from the start, Alpine Bay – with its one course and a sparse nearby population – struggled year after year to stay in business. Although a beautiful layout in a brilliant natural setting, Alpine Bay was hard to reach even from Birmingham, with at least part of the drive on winding, lonely two-lane roads. After barely managing to stay alive for decades, it was shuttered in 2014.
The closing of Alpine Bay caused hardly a ripple in the golf world, even in Alabama. But the place had built a loyal following. Namely, Tony Parton. And Alpine Bay’s closure did not end Parton’s love affair with the layout. One summer evening in 2016, he and his wife, Jan, took a walk along the abandoned course.
Course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., left, with Alpine Bay Golf Club owner Tony Parton (Jim Hansen/Golfweek)
“When we got to what had been the eighth green [a par 3 over a small lake],” he remembers, “we were shocked at the abysmal condition of the course. It was all grown over, just terrible, with weeds and wild plants growing waist-high and the original grass all but dead.”
The Partons committed themselves to pulling up the worst of the weeds on just the one green. “We came back several nights in a row, working to uncover what was left of the golf course we loved.”
During one of their first trips to the abandoned layout, Tony got a phone call from his friend Mark Calhoun, also a previous regular at the golf course. “Mark asked where I was,” Parton remembers. “I said, ‘You’ll never believe me, but I’m at Alpine.’ ”
Calhoun got in his pickup truck and drove right out to the spot where Tony was power-mowing weeds and grass. “Mark and I took a close look at what had been the green, trying to figure out what we could do about it,” Parton said. When the tall grass on the former green was mown to a reasonable length, they realized, “There was hope for this course.”
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
The 144-acre property that was the golf course, practice range, putting green and small clubhouse had been for sale for months. Parton quickly called the realtor and made an offer. The price tag was $144,000. The process took only a few months. By early 2017, Parton, then retired from the federal prison system, put together enough money to take over the course.
Buying Alpine Bay was one thing, but getting it ready for golfers was something else. The next step in the process was to get more people on board. With Calhoun’s help, Parton established Alpine Group LLC. A handful of investors boosted the value of the limited liability company to $520,000. Still not much to run a golf course.
It took five months of diligent restoration and backbreaking work to get the course ready for play. “No words can describe the emotions of watching golfers tee off at the course for the first time,” Parton said.
In the 12 months following its reopening in the summer of 2017, the semiprivate Alpine Bay Golf Club acquired 60 members. Today it is home to just more than twice that many, virtually all of them from the surrounding communities of Lincoln, St. Clair, Vincent, Coosa Pines, Harpersville, Childersburg, and Talladega. Right at 15,000 rounds have been played on the course each of the past two years, with peak green fees reaching just $46 on weekends and holidays.
Still, Alpine Bay is the Rodney Dangerfield of Alabama golf – it gets no respect. Rarely does anyone from Birmingham, Montgomery or Huntsville make the drive to play. Most golfers in the state still have never heard of Alpine Bay, and those who have heard of it dismiss Alpine Bay as no longer in business or not worth playing.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
To demonstrate the long-forgotten and ignored virtues of the Alpine Bay golf course, Golfweek included a day at Alpine Bay in its 2021 Architectural Summit near Birmingham honoring the legacy of Robert Trent Jones Sr. The summit was attended by 44 of Golfweek Best’s course raters. By and large, the raters, who came from as far away as Northern Ireland, found Alpine Bay more than deserving of their visit. The course’s conditioning still needed substantial work, but the bones of the course are outstanding. In many respects, it is a truer example of a classic Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout than any of the courses on the Trail.
Putting in a special appearance that day was Robert Trent Jones Jr., the eldest son of Trent Sr., along with Jr.’s own son, Trent, the chief operating officer of Robert Trent Jones II, Inc. This was the first time for either Jones Jr. or Trent to visit the course that Jones Sr. had designed a half-century earlier.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
As Jones Jr. went around the course with Parton, he was constantly reminded of the characteristics that were typical of his father’s designs. In an impromptu talk after the round, he said that Alpine Bay “deserved a much better fate than it has gotten, so far.”
Truth is, if made a part of the Robert Trent Jones Trail – and updated and refined accordingly – Alpine Bay could become one of the more remarkable and unique golfing destinations in the state of Alabama.
But perhaps it is better to keep it as the neglected hidden treasure that it is –the way Parton has loved it.
After a chemical-application mishap, renovation of the greens at Ross Bridge will commence as early as April 2023.
Ross Bridge, one of the top-ranked golf courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, has suffered a debilitating chemical mishap that poisoned most of the greens on the layout in Hoover near Birmingham.
Much of the 18-hole course is closed indefinitely as crews attempt to save portions of the putting surfaces in hopes of operating the course at some capacity over the fall, winter and early spring.
Earlier in September, the maintenance staff mistook a 1-ton bag of herbicide and fertilizer mix for a bag of green sand that was to be applied to the putting surfaces. The herbicide was spread across the greens of Nos. 5-18, killing much of the bent grass on those surfaces. The bag of herbicide had been stored in the wrong building before the mishap, said John Cannon, chairman of Sunbelt Golf Corporation that operates the Trail’s 26 courses at 11 sites. He said the herbicide mix could appear as being green to the naked eye, similar to the mix that was supposed to be spread across the greens.
“It was just the wrong product in the wrong place, and it should never have happened,” Cannon said. “It’s pilot error, no doubt about it.”
Charcoal will be injected into the greens this week to try to form a filter layer, giving the surviving grass a better chance to spread. If that method works, the course could reopen in some capacity for this winter. In the meantime, holes 1-4 were undamaged and are open now, forming a playable loop that returns to the clubhouse. The practice facilities remain open.
The ninth (right) and 18th green at Ross Bridge on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail near Birmingham (Courtesy of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail/Michael Clemmer)
“Ross Bridge has very large greens, so we know we’re not going to get 100-percent coverage even in the best circumstances,” Cannon said. “It really is about seeing what progress we can make in the next month or so without having play on the golf course.”
Regardless of those efforts, the course will be renovated with new putting surfaces starting in the spring of 2023. Operators already planned to renovate the greens from bent grass to Ultradwarf Bermuda grass at Ross Bridge in 2024, and those plans have been accelerated. The greens will be cored out and regrassed, and other improvement projects such as tree clearing in key areas will commence ahead of schedule.
“We just hope to take what we have, which internally is a real tragedy, and end up 12 months from now with a better product,” Cannon said. “You have to find the bright spot somewhere when you’re going through difficult times like this.”
The timeline for the greens renovation has not been set, but work could begin in April or even earlier if the current surfaces don’t recover sufficiently after the charcoal injections. Cannon said the greens renovation would need to be completed with full grow-in before October next year to get ahead of any possible cold weather and early freezes.
Ross Bridge ranks No. 4 in Alabama on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list of public-access layouts in the U.S. It is adjacent to the AAA Four Diamond Renaissance Ross Bridge Resort and Spa, just minutes down the street from Oxmoor Valley, another Trail facility that features two full-size 18-hole courses (Ridge and Valley) with a revamped short course scheduled to come online this year.
The chemical mishap will not only affect tee times at Ross Bridge, Cannon said, it will affect bookings at the hotel and send more play to Oxmoor Valley. The accident’s total economic impact for the Trail cannot yet be projected, but it could reach into the millions of dollars. “Accelerating (the greens renovation) by a year changes the whole capital plan for the Trail for the next two years,” Cannon said.
The Trail was conceived by David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, in the 1980s as a way to boost economic growth and diversify the state’s pension fund. It has expanded in the ensuing decades as one of the most popular buddies-trip destinations in the U.S., with golfers able to bounce from site to site with consistently solid golf courses, hotels, restaurants and other amenities.
The Trail’s operators are experienced in converting original bent grass greens to Ultradwarf Bermuda, strains of which have been greatly improved in recent decades. Only four courses on the Trail, not counting Ross Bridge, still have bent grass greens, Cannon said. His team has overseen the renovation of more than a dozen courses to Bermuda greens, which he said provide a better putting surface year-round without suffering as much stress as do bent greens in Alabama’s hot summers.
“We know we can build high-quality Ultradwarf greens that our customers will appreciate all year round, and at the same time while we’re closed we have the opportunity to do some other projects,” Cannon said. “That’s our final goal in this project, and it’s not about what already happened but what we can make out of it that’s the most important to us. …
“This is the biggest accident we’ve ever had to any of the golf courses on the Trail in my 25 years, and things like this happen, but we’re going to make the most of it and we’re going to improve Ross Bridge.”
Alabama and Gonzaga headlines top out of conference NCAAM games this year
Last year the sixteenth ranked Alabama Crimson Tide and [autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] went out to the ‘Battle in Seattle’ to take on third ranked, and the title favorites, Gonzaga Bulldogs in their home state of Washington. Gonzaga was lead by likely first overall pick Chet Holmgren, however, that didn’t stop the Tide as they took down the Bulldogs 91-82 behind a massive [autotag]Jaden Shackelford[/autotag] performance.
The Dec. 4, 2021 meeting between the two programs was the first ever match-up, and came on the same day as [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag] and company defeated the Georgia Bulldogs to win the SEC Championship. A day that will forever live in Alabama galore.
Now, Gonzaga will be traveling to Birmingham on Dec. 17 to take on the Tide in Alabama’s backyard. Gonzaga returns a large majority of their line up, and will likely be a top five team to start the season once again. Alabama will have a massive chance to gain a marquee win in their home state early on in the season.
Source: Next season's game between Gonzaga and Alabama is expected to be played on Saturday, December 17th, in Birmingham.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.
Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today!
All 8 USFL teams will be based in Birmingham, Alabama, for the 2022 season
The USFL is returning to the football field. The teams will be associated with different cities as they were in the league’s first iteration.
However, for 2022 they will have one home state: Alabama. The games will be played at Birmingham’s UAB’s Protective Stadium and Legion Field, home of the Crimson Tide
Let the jokes roll in about these teams being the second through ninth-best in the state.
The first game will feature the New Jersey Generals against the Birmingham Stallions and will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 16.
That game will air on both FOX and NBC, making it the first scheduled sporting event to air on competing broadcast networks since Super Bowl I in 1967, which was shown on both CBS and NBC.
“The first game played in any new league is itself historical and having the USFL’s inaugural game simulcast by NBC and Fox makes it even more so,” said Eric Shanks, Fox Sports CEO and executive producer. “It’s rare when two competitors can come together and see how cooperation can lead to long-term benefit.”
In case you were wondering about how the rosters will come together: The eight-team league will hold a player selection meeting Feb. 22-23, and training camps will open March 21.
Each USFL team will carry a 38-man active roster, plus a seven-man practice squad, and players will receive base compensation and be eligible for victory bonuses.
The league revealed how the divisions will break down:
The North: the Generals, the Michigan Panthers, the Philadelphia Stars and the Pittsburgh Maulers.
The South: the Stallions, Houston Gamblers, New Orleans Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey isn’t hiding from the reality of the world like some thought he’d do in order to do everything possible to save football for his conference in 2020
Perhaps it’s because of their own saying that “it just means more” that many believe the SEC will be the last conference to make any changes to their 2020 football plans.
Word was that the SEC was not happy whatsoever that the Big Ten announced their plan to play only conference games last week and one can assume they felt the same when the Pac-12 followed suit.
What will the SEC ultimately do?
We got a peak into that a little bit on Monday when the conference athletic directors met in person for the first time since March.
Today’s meeting took place in the SEC offices in Birmingham, Alabama and the most notable takeaway is that conference commissioner Greg Sankey isn’t hiding from the reality of the world like some thought he’d do in order to do everything possible to save football for his conference in 2020.
“It is clear that current circumstances related to COVID-19 must improve and we will continue to closely monitor developments around the virus on a daily basis,” Sankey said. “In the coming weeks we will continue to meet regularly with campus leaders via videoconferences and gather relevant information while guided by medical advisors. We believe that late July will provide the best clarity for making the important decisions ahead of us.” -SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on July 13, 2020
It might not be earth-shattering but the sole fact that the head of the SEC went as far as to say things need to improve as clearly as he did came across as more revealing than I was anticipating the SEC leading on. Just like the ACC, the SEC will wait until late July until announcing any decisions on the 2020 football season.
Notre Dame is currently scheduled to host Arkansas on the second Saturday in September. The trip would be the first for the Razorbacks to Notre Dame Stadium.
Perhaps the Pete Thamel piece from earlier today made the obvious more real or maybe it was just common sense showing up in a place we don’t always expect it to.
Whatever exactly it is, it’s starting to feel like we’re going to need a sports miracle in order to pull off a college football season anytime soon.
