Magnolia Grove Golf Course — Local services in Mobile

Played Falls course today and was very impressed initially with the operation and conditions on the golf course until an encounter with a marshall about seven holes in. Our group had just stopped for a brief bathroom break when a marshall rolled up, saying he had been sent by the pro shop to tell us we were eight minutes behind pace and to speed it up. This was with no group visible behind us to complain, the shop was working solely on the GPS system on the carts and apparently left the marshall with no discretion. This on a course that forced carts back to the path 100 yards from most of the greens, almost all heavily guarded but deep and very penal bunkers. The card is marked with time expected per hole, and allows for only 4 hours and sixteen minutes to finish the quite difficult, yet really magnificent course. Btw...we finished the eighteen in 4:20, so weren't slow by and reasonable standard, especially considering we were all in our sixties, and one was playing on bad knees with a recent hip replacement. The experience soured me completely on the RTJ trail brand and I will not be back and cannot recommend it to anyone who isn't a fast playing single...

The course is laid out very nicely as each hole is its own and you rarely will have players from other holes hitting on to your fairway as they don’t go back and forth to one another like many public courses.

We played in November (winter season rates) and the course and greens were still in pretty good shape. We played both 18s and the par 3 course a few times.

All staff were very friendly and welcoming. They food at the 19th hole was fantastic. I’m not sure why the course doesn’t advertise their bar/restaurant or clubhouse online. They have a large wrap around patio overlooking the course with plenty of outdoor seating for those beautiful blue sky Alabama days!

The one thing that made the course less enjoyable to play was that the greens crew puts the holes in nearly unplayable locations on the greens.

I’m fine with a challenging pin placement to hit at, but placing the holes on a slope where balls consistently would roll 25ft past was a joke. Even when putting up hill and lagging just past the hole on several occasions, the ball would roll all the way backwards and past where you began the putt. It was like you were on a silly putt...

Let me say, I've been playing here since it opened. So my perspective is having seen it at various times and it's the comparisons that shape my review.

First - the staff. They are fantastic. Friendly, helpful. I would give the pro shop and course staff five stars. The only negative was a custodian out on the course talking loudly on her cell phone. Ok - it's a slow day. But when you see golfers ... whisper.

Second - the course. Still a good course, but ... not what it used to be. Tee boxes with dead grass? How hard is it to maintain a tee? Cartpaths with cracks and clear signs of not being maintained? Again ... these are ok, but very noticeable for a $95 course. I would think they would be better.

Third - practice green. Hello? Please blow the green ... it had so much pine straw on it as to be unusable. The range .. it's a range. I was surprised at the condition of the grass, but the tees were good.

Overall ... still a great course to play but not in as good a shape as it used to be. It plays like a $50 course, but that's just in comparison to others. If in Mobile, I...