Auburn University Golf Club

The AU Club is home to the Auburn men's and women's golf teams. Auburn alum, and course architect, Bill Bergin carved this course out of a rather hilly landscape for the central Alabama plains. The rolling course offers a lot of movement in both the fairways and greens. My most favorite feature of this course is that if you really examine the hole, you will see natural mounds, swales and slopes that can gather your ball and feed it to preferred landing areas. I thought this provided a nice parachute to some of the trouble that lurked throughout. The holes around the small lake - nos. 2, 3, 7 and 8 - are quite memorable. I especially liked the back nine, particularly the first four holes of the side. No. 10 is a dogleg left that plays straight up the hill. No. 11 epitomizes a hallmark of this course: blind tee shots. A handful of times you are launching your ball without knowing where it is going. This could be more detrimental if it were a public course, but given the private nature, members are well aware of what awaits. The par 5s are fantastic. The short 4th hole is probably the least memorable, but the 12th tumbles from left to right downhill and 16 offers a fantastic risk/reward option. Chipping can be tough here with closely-mown run-off areas that are sunken well below green complexes. The sand was very consistent and wet. The greens are very grainy Bermuda and roll out tremendously downgrain, another barrier to chipping it close. Bottom line, this is a must play if you get an invitation.