RTJ Golf Trail at Cambrian Ridge (Sherling/Canyon)

Overview: The Sherling and Canyon nines at Cambrian Ridge form a 18-hole public routing through rolling ground near Greenville, Alabama. Robert Trent Jones Sr. used the site’s elevation changes, hardwoods, lake edges and target-style holes to make the course different from the flatter RTJ Trail sites. The scorecard combination is listed at about 7,500 yards and par 72, with the Sherling nine rising to a high point before dropping toward Sherling Lake and the Canyon nine moving through former hunting ground. The land provides the course’s rhythm: climb, open, turn toward water and climb again.

History: Cambrian Ridge opened in 1993 as one of the early sites on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and was named the third best new public course in America by Golf Digest in 1994. The property contains 27 championship holes, the Sherling, Canyon and Loblolly nines. A three-year renovation concluded in 2016: Loblolly and Sherling work was completed in 2013 and 2014, while the Canyon reconstruction finished in 2016. The renovation reshaped greens and opened views toward Sherling Lake while preserving the site’s distinctive elevation and target-golf character.

Did You Know? The Canyon nine was carved from former hunting grounds where deer blinds remain attached to hardwood trees. Those remnants connect the modern golf routing with the property’s earlier use without changing the holes’ playing lines.