Capstone Club -- Brookwood, AL

[Jeff Shelman]

Played there earlier this week (my first Hanse course) and wanted to give it a solid thumbs up.

There is a really good mix of funky/interesting holes and challenging holes. The routing is fantastic. There are lots of options in terms of using the contours around the greens.

The par 3s are really good. There's a nice mix of par 4s. The par 5s are fine, but not anything too special. About the only nit is that bunker maintanence is pretty limited.

The course is about 45 minutes or so from Birmingham, it's very easy to get to and they certainly could use the business. For those fellow northerners who go down and play the trail in the spring, I recommend taking a day and going to play Capstone. I think it would be a great place to play twice in one day as I can think of several places where I'd like to try something different.

Also buy the yardage book. In addition to a picture and a tip for each hole, there is a part where Hanse (I presume it was him who wrote it) talked about what they were trying to accomplish and some of the inspiration for the hole/similar examples of the hole, etc. Pretty cool.

Website is: www.capstoneclub.com

[Bill_McBride]

From what I hear from my son who has been living in Birmingham for about six months, the "Jerry Pate / Gil Hanse Trail" -- that's Capstone, Old Overton, Limestone Springs, Old Colony, Timberline, all in the Birmingham - Tuscaloosa area -- are much more fun to play and interesting than the RTJ Trail.  I think all four of these courses are also pretty affordable public access.

[Jeff Shelman]

One more thing I should have added for you SEC folks. Capstone is one of the growing number of courses/clubs that is affiliated with the local school.

It doesn't take more than a minute in the clubhouse for you to figure out which school Capstone is affiliated with.

It's worth playing even if you don't like the Crimson Tide. If that's the case, you might just want to go in the door on the side that goes right into the pro shop and skip the lobby and restaurant area.

[Jeff_Mingay]

I've seen, maybe, four or five photos of Capstone that make the place look really neat. Thanks for your confirmation, Jeff.

As a Canadian though, it's tough to find a good excuse to travel to Alabama  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Well being part of the tide does not make it more attractive to anyone but a school of losers. Rama Jama back at ya alabama. The course is much better than the school but suffers from location location location, because of distance from Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. It is reportedly not doing particually well financially. Again it has a great reputation as a course.