Peninsula Golf & Racquet Club, Gulf Shores, AL

Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club is located on the beautiful Fort Morgan peninsula between Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The course has received 4 ½ stars by Golf Digest as one of the “most memorable and enjoyable” courses in the southeast. Peninsula was designed by Earl Stone and encompasses 27 holes that wind through 800 acres of beautiful live oaks, cypress trees, lakes, and natural vegetation. Each nine-hole layout is unique in its own respect with holes on each that stand out. Don’t be surprised if you encounter some official gulf coast wildlife such as alligators, sandhill cranes, and eagles.

The Lakes Course features back-to-back par 5s at Numbers 6 and 7, with beautiful Mobile Bay in the background as you play the latter. A good drive on the 486-yard 6th hole will create an opportunity to go for the green in two. Once you hit the corner of the dogleg, you’ll find the fairway flanked on either side with bunkers, so accuracy on both your layup and approach shot is essential. Number 7 plays 500 yards and features a large landing area off the tee. Big hitters can try and get home in two but need to beware of the hazard to the left and out of bounds to the right. There’ a great view of Mobile Bay just beyond the green. The green is wide and not real deep, so selecting the correct club is essential.

With 27 holes of golf at Peninsula and another 36 holes at nearby Craft Farms, either one is the perfect venue for your next outing or tournament. The staff at either course will help with everything from pre-planning and setup, to food and beverage and the awarding of prizes. The tournament staff will see to it you and your guests are well taken care of while the culinary team will create a menu that tempts your palettes.

Speaking of palettes, Chef Kurtis Krum heads up the culinary staff at both Peninsula and Craft Farms and uses his creative expertise to create delicious dishes from scratch. After all, how many golf courses bake their own bread? It makes the fresh sandwiches taste that much better!

I had the opportunity to speak with Jamey Davis the Superintendent at Peninsula Club about what makes his property so special. Jamey said that the course being built on a sand dune is both a blessing and a curse, the blessing being they could get 8 inches of rain in the morning and because it drains so well, be able to have carts out in the afternoon. He also talked about how unique the property is with the Bon Secours wildlife preserve abutting the property to the east, historic Ft. Morgan to the West, Bon Secours Bay to the north and the Gulf of Mexico to the south.

This is just an overview of what’s in store for you and your group at either facility. For more information, check them out online

Peninsula (Cypress and Marsh) played as a very nice course with a high difficulty level. To score well at Peninsula one has to be very accurate off the tee. Being in the fairway off the tee is critical due to water hazards and waste bunkers on almost every hole. The course can play very long especially if you're playing from the back tees (which we were) and windy conditions (and it was windy). Tee boxes and fairways were in very good condition but the greens had been top dressed very recently so it was hard to hold the greens and putt with any king of consistency. When we checked in we were to told the greens were running at 11-12 on the stimp meter but failed to tell us about the greens being tops dressed. Very frustrating as we thought there should have been a discount but the golf coordinator at the condo mangaged to get us a very nice discount with Honours Golf. Very nice of them to do that. Peninsula is a very nice and demanding golf course...a true test of ones golf game and I would play it again. By the way, bring the bug spray.