Grand National Links

Grand National Links is one of the courses that launched the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in 1993, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design routed around a 600-acre lake in Opelika, Alabama. The lake is not a decorative feature; it is the central strategic element of the design, influencing club selection, aim points, and risk-reward calculations on nearly half the holes.

Jones Sr. was 87 years old when the Grand National courses opened, and the design carries the signatures of his mature period: large greens with pronounced contouring, bunkering that frames the preferred line of play, and a routing that builds progressively in difficulty toward the closing stretch.

From the championship tees, the Links plays 7,311 yards at par 72 with a rating of 76.2 and slope of 141. These are demanding numbers that reward thoughtful course management over brute force. The lake holes carry the most obvious challenges: tee shots that flirt with the water's edge to set up better approach angles, approaches that carry over inlets to reach greens positioned on peninsulas, and the constant visual presence of water that influences decision-making even when it is not directly in play.

The green complexes are among the most interesting on the Trail, with surfaces that tilt and break in ways that reward reading the approach from the fairway. Pin positions on the lake-side portions create risk-reward dynamics that persist from the first visit through the twentieth.

A founding course on a system that has earned its reputation, with 54 holes of golf available at one address. The most logistically efficient stop on the Trail.