RTJ Golf Trail at The Shoals — Local services in Alabama

My review is solely for a wedding venue, I can not attest to the golfing or other accommodations. This place is beautiful, but if you want a joyful, stress free wedding day I do not recommend this place. My review is based on my personal experience while being a bridesmaid in a wedding at RTJ-Shoals. I was directly involved in the activities throughout the day and can give a credible review of the facilities/staff. I was also involved in the meetings with the coordinator prior to the wedding and I know what was offered to us and what was not. During our initial meeting with coordinator at RTJ months prior to the wedding she stated that we could remove the photos of the golfers from the wall and place our own photos. The day of the wedding when we were given the go-ahead to begin putting up decorations, I took the photos off the wall and hung our own. I placed RTJ’s photos on a table to be put away since I did not see staff/coordinator for the hour we were decorating (I understand she was probably busy). A few hours later the coordinator came to find me and rudely stated that we could not remove decorations from the walls and asked who told me I could do that. When I reminded her that she was the individual that told me I could do this she stated that she meant that she would take the wall hangings down, not someone else. I sincerely apologized, but she continued to verbally reprimand me leading me to finally ask “what can I do about it now to make this situation better?”. She then moved into reprimanding me for bringing outside food into the clubhouse (another thing she explicitly stated that we could do during our previous meeting). I reminded her, again, that she was in fact the individual that told us we could do this. She responded that its okay to bring outside food in, but we are supposed to keep it hidden. So I guess we should have eaten in the bathroom stalls? Both of these complaints from her were after the fact and a complete waste of my time to discuss since there was nothing I could do about it. It was an unnecessary and rude. This day is supposed to be joyful. During set-up we were also reprimanded for allegedly going into the men’s locker room where the groomsmen were. I understand why the rule is in place, but it was not expressed to us before hand and the rude manager raising his voice to us was unacceptable. The places the bride and groom were promised to take photos on the golf course (once again I was at this meeting when these locations were discussed) were not delivered since there were golfers on the course. The couple was not even allowed to take photos in between the groups of golfers. The “bridal suite” is the employee break room that was unclean, dark, and the vanity area had a dingy mirror and poor lighting. The travel from the “suite” to the wedding area involved going through a dirty garage and filthy stair well. Also, one of the things that was promised for the ceremony was a small table for the couple to do communion. The day of the ceremony I had to remind the coordinator over 5 times to place a table for the couple to use. Finally, 20 minutes before the ceremony began I had to threaten to move a table myself. The coordinator did move the table herself and provided a table cloth all while guests were seated and watching. During the reception the staff was minimal and dirty plates were stacked up on the tables, drink station was continuously running dry. I did personally see the coordinator running back and forth to refill food/drinks, but it was clear the place was understaffed.There are too many things to list here, but these are just a few of the unnecessary stressors that were added on the bride/bridal party. Overall the place was understaffed and the few that were there...

Played both courses late March 2023.

Greens 5/5 for both courses, rolled fast and true. Lots of undulation and needed to be on proper side of hole.

Fairways 4/5 Schoolmaster, 2/5 Fighting Joe. Schoolmaster fairways were green and cut fairly short but a ding for being a bit longer than expected. Fighting Joe was dormant (which I didn't expect), there was a lot of very bare (borderline dead) spots, but also a lot of dormant grass debris/blades in spots where water ran which was a disappointment.

Rough 3.5/5 for both courses. Dormant on both and very fast. Some dead spots and more dormant blades/debris. Biggest issue was a bit too short around the greens so there was absolutely no way a ball that trickled off the green would stop... immediately rolled into water. Need to be kept longer when dormant for playability.

Course design were very good. 4.5/5 Schoolmaster was very tough without many clear cut places to miss off the tee. Fighting Joe was difficult but more fair and gave players a spot to miss (albeit a fairway bunker).

Clubhouse/staff 4.5/5. Good service and good food/drinks.

Overall good experience and good value. I'd wait until courses are out of dormancy...

Played four rounds here on 5/4 to 5/6 for our 16 person annual golf trip - 2 at the Fighting Joe and 2 at the School Master. The course layouts are great and they’re both great contrasts to one another. However, the course conditions were a massive disappointment. We didn’t expect the tee boxes to be pristine or for the fairways to have fully flushed given how early we are in the season, but we didn’t expect the fairways and fringes to be absolutely littered with Poa Annua (weeds). There’s no excuse for a course that charges $100+ a round to cut corners and not perform simple maintenance by spreading pre emergent each fall. Hopefully moving forward they’ll put as much effort into simple annual maintenance as they do pushing...