Each year, we travel to the Gulf Shores / Orange Beach area for vacation. Located between Pensacola, FL and Mobile, AL, Gulf Shores is a great destination for family vacations. It's nowhere near as commercial as somewhere like Panama City, and not as pricey as areas like San Destin. The beaches are great white sand beaches and local restaurants are quite good.
My favorite part of the trip each year though is my morning trips to Craft Farms. Craft Farms is located just a few miles north of the beaches. It has 36-holes designed by Arnold Palmer. I get up every morning at 6 and hit the course before the family is awake.
Craft Farms is a large area of mainly retirement houses. Many of the residents own their own tricked-out golf carts and drive them over to the course for the day's play.
The facilities are fantastic. The Pro Shop contains a good selection of clothing and shoes. The clubhouse has a great grill with outstanding food, spacious eating areas and good locker rooms.
My favorite thing about Craft Farms is the staff. To a person, they are fantastic. From the bag boys, to the pro shop, to the grill, to the cart girls, the maintenance staff, everyone is friendly, cheerful and glad to serve you. They have an attentive and efficient starter, who will make sure you're pointed in the right direction and on-time for your tee time. Being a retirement community, it has been my experience that early birds can take advantage of the later start times of the regulars. When I arrive at 7 am, there's nobody there. I'm literally the first customer at the course. Generally the first occupied tee times are not until 8 am. Once on the course, you're not likely to see a marshal more than once a round. Pace of play is generally very good, so there's no need for overbearing marshals.
The courses have good facilities with appropriately placed bathrooms with water fountains. Carts are electric, clean, new and quite peppy with fully-filled sand bottles. Course conditions are absolutely fantastic. These are high-level country club conditions for about $80 a round, in-season. I can't speak highly enough about the conditions. Fairways and tee boxes are gorgeous. Greens are immaculately manicured and traps are filled with high quality white sand. Being a retirement community, you won't find a lot of ridiculous pin placements. The courses are fair and fun.
Cotton Creek is the older and more difficult of the two courses, and provides quite a challenge. With tree-lined fairways and water on numerous holes, it requires some quality golf to score well, but it is in no way, unfair. It's the longer and tighter of the two courses. Cypress Bend is the newer course, with a little more of a links feel, but is certainly not a links course. It has wide fairways with large landing areas, but water on a majority of the holes. The greens on Cypress Bed are more undulating, but large and receptive.
Maybe by now, you've realized I just can't say enough good things about Craft Farms. It's really a pleasure to play there, and if you're in the area, you won't be disappointed if you give it a try.
Course website: http://www.craftfarms.com/Club/Scripts/home/home.asp
Golf shop:
Clubhouse:
Short game area:
The range. Or, about 1/4th of the range. This is truly a HUGE range:
Putting green #1:
Putting green #2:
Onto the course pictures. The pictures are generally in order, though not every hole is shown.
First up, Cotton Creek.
This is the signature 6th hole, with a tee shot over the lake (dogleg right):
And the approach to the 6th, which again requires a shot over water fronting the well-guarded green:
The 9th, leading back to the club house:
Now to Cypress Bend:
My favorite part of the trip each year though is my morning trips to Craft Farms. Craft Farms is located just a few miles north of the beaches. It has 36-holes designed by Arnold Palmer. I get up every morning at 6 and hit the course before the family is awake.
Craft Farms is a large area of mainly retirement houses. Many of the residents own their own tricked-out golf carts and drive them over to the course for the day's play.
The facilities are fantastic. The Pro Shop contains a good selection of clothing and shoes. The clubhouse has a great grill with outstanding food, spacious eating areas and good locker rooms.
My favorite thing about Craft Farms is the staff. To a person, they are fantastic. From the bag boys, to the pro shop, to the grill, to the cart girls, the maintenance staff, everyone is friendly, cheerful and glad to serve you. They have an attentive and efficient starter, who will make sure you're pointed in the right direction and on-time for your tee time. Being a retirement community, it has been my experience that early birds can take advantage of the later start times of the regulars. When I arrive at 7 am, there's nobody there. I'm literally the first customer at the course. Generally the first occupied tee times are not until 8 am. Once on the course, you're not likely to see a marshal more than once a round. Pace of play is generally very good, so there's no need for overbearing marshals.
The courses have good facilities with appropriately placed bathrooms with water fountains. Carts are electric, clean, new and quite peppy with fully-filled sand bottles. Course conditions are absolutely fantastic. These are high-level country club conditions for about $80 a round, in-season. I can't speak highly enough about the conditions. Fairways and tee boxes are gorgeous. Greens are immaculately manicured and traps are filled with high quality white sand. Being a retirement community, you won't find a lot of ridiculous pin placements. The courses are fair and fun.
Cotton Creek is the older and more difficult of the two courses, and provides quite a challenge. With tree-lined fairways and water on numerous holes, it requires some quality golf to score well, but it is in no way, unfair. It's the longer and tighter of the two courses. Cypress Bend is the newer course, with a little more of a links feel, but is certainly not a links course. It has wide fairways with large landing areas, but water on a majority of the holes. The greens on Cypress Bed are more undulating, but large and receptive.
Maybe by now, you've realized I just can't say enough good things about Craft Farms. It's really a pleasure to play there, and if you're in the area, you won't be disappointed if you give it a try.
Course website: http://www.craftfarms.com/Club/Scripts/home/home.asp
Golf shop:
Clubhouse:
Short game area:
The range. Or, about 1/4th of the range. This is truly a HUGE range:
Putting green #1:
Putting green #2:
Onto the course pictures. The pictures are generally in order, though not every hole is shown.
First up, Cotton Creek.
This is the signature 6th hole, with a tee shot over the lake (dogleg right):
And the approach to the 6th, which again requires a shot over water fronting the well-guarded green:
The 9th, leading back to the club house:
Now to Cypress Bend:
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