The RTJ trail site at Oxmoor Valley near Birmingham includes two 18 hole courses and a short course. I played both 18-hole courses on the same day, making it a challenging golf day. The Ridge course goes up and down a rocky ledge, creating many holes with elevated tees and greens. The Ridge course was one of the best condition courses that I played. The elevation changes create many blind shots, and accounting for the elevated greens often results in your ball rolling back 30 yards downhill. However, it is a beautiful golf course with tree-lined holes and scenic views.
The Valley course starts and finishes at the high elevation of the clubhouse, with most of the holes relatively level. The challenge here is the water features of winding creeks and sand traps, which provide obstacles to getting onto the green. The greens were fast and required accurate shooting to the green to hold on to the putting surface. Greens were very large, and you often had a 40 or 50-foot putt to the hole. The Valley course was recently renovated and added a huge square green with a 3-foot-deep channel across the middle of the green.
