RTJ Golf Trail at Highland Oaks (Magnolia/Highlands)

Overview: The Magnolia/Highlands routing at Highland Oaks combines two nine-hole Robert Trent Jones designs in Dothan, creating an 18-hole, par-72 round with a current black-tee total of 7,593 yards. Highlands is relatively open and brings lakes into play on four holes, including a peninsula green. Magnolia moves across higher ground with specimen magnolias and a long wooden bridge over marshland. The combination changes the visual language of the round halfway through: open water and broad fairways give way to trees, marsh and more enclosed target lines. The result is a public course with two distinct personalities in one scorecard.

History: Highland Oaks opened in 1993 as the fifth site on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The complex now offers three championship nines, Highlands, Magnolia and Marshwood, plus a separate nine-hole short course. The facility’s 2020 work included regressing the championship nines with TifEagle Ultradwarf greens and redesigning the practice area. The official scorecard publishes the nines separately; the imported 7,593-yard value is the current black-tee sum of Highlands at 3,892 and Magnolia at 3,701.

Did You Know? Magnolia is reached by a 1,000-foot wooden bridge spanning marshland. It is a functional part of the routing, carrying the round from the lower landscape to higher ground where the specimen magnolia trees give the nine its name.