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Conecuh Sausage has taken over Alabama. You’ll find it at breakfast next to the eggs on your plate and in the white gravy. It’s there again on your lunch flatbread. You can wrap up a long day of golf with a serving of sausage in your shrimp and grits. Name a recipe, and the cooks in Alabama will find a way to inject a little Conecuh Sausage. Vegans beware.
The sausages are made in the small town of Evergreen in the southern reaches of this very Southern state, and the brand has become an icon of civic pride. Judging from my recent week of golf in Alabama, it would be safe to say the little bundles of meat make up a sizable percentage of the entire state’s total caloric intake. I sampled nine meals on the trip that didn’t come through a drive-through window, and seven of them included at least one Conecuh Sausage concoction on the plate.
About the only thing more prevalent in Alabama than the sausage is the tasty golf along the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. With 26 courses at 11 sites stretched across the state – 468 holes in all – the Trail pretty much dominates the golf scene in the state. Eight of the top 10 courses on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list of top public-access layouts in the state are part of the Trail.
Many of the best of those stretch across the middle of the state, beginning with the Lake Course at Grand National in Opelika, which ranks No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best 2021 list for Alabama. Take Interstate 85 southwest to Prattville near Montgomery for the Judge at Capitol Hill, which is No. 3 in the state. Then jump onto I-65 for the ride north to Hoover near Birmingham for 36 more at No. 2 Ross Bridge and No. 6 Oxmoor Valley’s Ridge Course.
That was the majority of my itinerary in early January as I set out to lay eyes on the best of public-access golf in the state, all with the burning intent of settling this question: Where should I play golf in Alabama? There were scenic mountain holes, lakeside par 3s, incredibly long layouts for those foolish enough to play from the wrong tees, even a few birdie putts that found the cup. Did I mention the Conecuh Sausage? It really is everywhere.
About the only thing missing from the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is the No. 1 public-access layout in the state.