Tell us about the courses you play
Help us make Alabama Golf News better: Tell us about the courses you play.
If you’ve been with us a while, you probably know that we have a golf course directory containing all 200-plus public-access courses in Alabama and Northwest Florida.
The directory covers from Blackberry Trail Golf Course in Florence in the northwest to Windswept Dunes Golf Club in Destin, Florida, in the south.
It has detailed descriptions for some of the courses we know well, and bare-bones data for others we haven’t played.
That’s where you come in.
We’re asking for your help from you, the folks who play these courses week in and week out. We invite you to add to the course descriptions in the directory
You’re the expert. You play there
Here’s how it works:
First, subscribe to our free newsletter. We send out new issues by email once every month or so during golf season. To participate in this project you must be an email newsletter subscriber. It’s free to sign up and we promise not to spam you. Once you sign up via a link on our site (there’s one in the home page menu), look for a confirmation email. Reply to that and you’re on the subscriber list.
Next, scroll through the directory looking for courses you’ve played, preferably courses you know well. If you’re a course employee or operator, make sure we have the basics right for your course, then feel free to send us a more detailed description of your property.
Share your course knowledge
For everyone – players and operators alike – we invite you to send us some descriptive text describing the course, its character, a bit of history if you know it, how it plays, its signature hole, strategies to play it, even what’s best to eat in the snack bar or grille.
We’ll edit your responses for length and clarity and include them in the course’s listing to help other golfers looking at playing there. We’ll include your name if you want us to, or withhold your name if you want to remain anonymous.
Where to send your course descriptions
Email: dan@alabamagolfnews.com
Put “Course Directory” in the email subject line.
Your descriptions can be short and sweet, something like this, for example: “A bargain for the price, ABC Golf & Country Club is well-maintained, with green that roll true and diabolical bunkers.” Or this, “Don’t pass this course up! A serious test. Stay out of the woods which come into play almost every hole!”
If you have a bad experience, go ahead and write about it but be fair. Were the conditions sub-standard because of drought or had a tropical storm just rolled through? Golf Digest relies on its course raters to be fair and we hope you’ll be, too.
How much to write
What length? Anywhere from 50-100 words all the way to several hundred words. As editors, we tell writers, “Tell what the reader what he or she needs to know, however many words that takes.”
We sometimes quote Mark Twain’s line to a correspondent: “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.”
Ask your golf group to join the project. The more voices the better. This is a winter project for us, so keep us in mind over the next few months as you explore more of Alabama’s and Northwest Florida’s courses.
Gregg Dewalt is the editor and Dan Vukelich is the online editor of Alabama Golf News
Have a story idea or a news item to report to Alabama Golf News? Email gregg@alabamagolfnews.com
Featured image of Columbia University
