Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail: A Cautionary Tale

I have very little investment into the golf scene in Alabama. I have never been to Alabama, and I have no immediate plans to go to Alabama, save for a vague desire to visit and play golf in every state in the country. But even I find the plight of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail to be a fascinating study into golf in the modern day.

The 1990s were great for golf. Especially after Tiger Woods burst onto the scene, the idea of a state-subsidized golf course system was a decent one, and the RTJ Trail made money all through the boom years. And then came the crash. The Trail began to fall into the red, and it's done so ever since. So now, Alabama residents are essentially paying for this gigantic, sprawling system of not particularly exciting golf courses. Seriously, it's 468 holes of golf, all losing money, and not one course among the bunch is what you would call great. Some aren't bad, to be sure, but others kind of are. And Alabama is stuck with it, because it's the Trail, and the value comes from the fact that it is the Trail. But it'll almost certainly never make money again, because that's not where golf is going. But hey, there's a bunch of open golf courses down there for presumably not a lot of money, so that's something for the golfers out there.