City aims to become a regional golf destination
Golfers in the Gadsden area see Twin Bridges Golf Club as a quality public facility that offers good bang for the buck.
City officials see the future of Twin Bridges as much more: as an economic and tourism driver to this east Alabama town. With golf in the midst of a boom – public course tee sheets are filled to the max and private clubs are at maximum membership.
G adsden officials are going all-in on Twin Bridges upgrades that include a lighted back nine, a new, state-of-the-art TopTracer range, a renovated clubhouse, and cart barn, and a new drive-thru halfway house called ‘The Turns’ between the ninth and 10th holes. A course bunker-renovation program is in its final stages.
In short, city officials are betting that the $6-8 million investment will turn Twin Bridges into a magnetfacility that will become more of an entertainment hub. They hope that with the addition of a Marriott Tribute hotel, Gadsden will be able to piggy-back on the popularity of the nearby Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Silver Lakes facility and become a player in the golf destination space.
“When the mayor (Craig Ford) took office, this was one of the things that we were trying to work on: How do we bring more tourism and more traffic in to try to drive the economy and drive revenue?” said John Moore, Gadsden’s director of commercial development and community affairs.
A long-term vision
I think that it’ll be a huge economic driver for us over the next 15 to 20 years,” Moore saidof the city’s initiative.
“The economy had been sort of— I won’t say it had been flat — for several years, but the growth rate hadn’t really been what we would have expected. Sitting down and going through it and evaluating it when he took office four years ago, this was one of the things that was on his radar: tourism, and sports tourism on top of that,” Moore said.
Moore said that Twin Bridges was quickly identified as “having the capabilities of bringing in sports tourism.” Twin Bridges does between 36,000 to 40,000 rounds a year, he said.
“I won’t say we’re maxed out, but we’re pushing pretty close,” he said. “So, we started looking at possibly bringing in different, non-traditional revenue for golf courses.”
New range to provide TopGolf-type experience
A visit to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando resulted in a partnership with Cover the Tees, an Oviedo, Florida-based company that builds covered ranges and provides a TopGolf-type of experience with TopTracer technology.
“We realized at that moment we could really turn our driving range into somewhat of a TopGolf entertainment venue—not only during the day for golfers, but at night for people who are particularly non-golfers and still looking for activities, as far as going out, hitting golf balls, and enjoying a night of entertainment with good food and beverages,” Moore said. “We thought, ‘This is something that there’s nothing else like this in this area for sure.”
Twin Bridges had the land and will operate it. Cover the Tees is building it. Revenue will be shared.
“I think it’s a good partnership and a good thing for Twin Bridges,” Moore said. “The TopTracer and the TopGolf aspect will not only bring people down to use the facility because it’s new and nice and cool,” Moore said.
He said he hopes the new range will in turn result in more people beginning to play golf.
The TopTracer range will also be a training base for our golf pros to actually teach out of, and so I think that’s going to be a very big deal for us because, again, there’s nothing like that anywhere in this area.”
New hotel, lighted back nine on the horizon
In addition to the new TopTracer range, the most significant change to the Twin Bridges course is lighting the back nine, the first in the state.
“When you talk about the Robert Trent Jones and things like that, our thought process was that once these folks get through playing golf over at Silver Lakes, then there’s an opportunity to come to Gadsden, eat dinner, and stay and play golf at night here,” Moore said.
Moore said a Marriott Tribute hotel is scheduled to be built on a piece of property overlooking the Coosa River, which flows around the Twin Bridges course.
Many of the RTJ Golf Trail sites have a Marriott hotel on-property or nearby. Silver Lakes does not.
“The thought process is that we build a five-star hotel and offer a golf course that’s more of what I consider to be the ultimate golfing experience,” Moore said.
The new range, the Turns halfway house and lighting the back nine should be complete by mid-November. Clubhouse renovations will follow, with a target date to open in late March or early April. Those plans call for turning the clubhouse into a restaurant/sports bar-type entity.
Plans for the clubhouse renovation include adding 12 feet to the backside of the deck, enclosing the veranda, and increasing the size of the pro shop and the restaurant.
Moore said the improved Twin Bridges Golf Course, along with an under construction 200,000-square foot indoor basketball and aquatic center, should help quell the notion that ‘there’s nothing to do in Gadsden’ perception.’
Combined with Gadsden’s central location about 90 minutes from Huntsville, Chattanooga, Birmingham and Atlanta, and just a short drive from Oxford/Anniston, Twin Bridges will become a prominent spot for the region’s golfers.
Featured image: Twin Bidges clubhouse
Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News
Have a story idea or a news item to report to Alabama Golf News? Email gregg@alabamagolfnews.com
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