We made it to Birmingham, Alabama on Friday night and our plan was to golf in Birmingham on Saturday morning and then hit the road. Well, that didn’t quite work out as I hoped. The two courses in Birmingham that I wanted to play had recently aerated their greens, so we skipped them this time around. We decided to get through Atlanta before traffic got too bad and play one of the courses at Chateau Elan.

The Atlanta area isn’t known for top-shelf public golf, but from what I could find Chateau Elan is one of the better public options. Also, we knew we couldn’t go wrong with another round at a Troon managed course. Chateau Elan has four courses on the property. There is a private course, two public regulation courses (Chateau and Woodlands) and a par-3 course. Also, there is a winery and a resort, so those are options for your friends or family who don’t golf.

I booked us a time on the Woodlands, pretty much flipping a coin to play it versus Chateau. If you are a local maybe you can comment about which course you prefer, as I’m not sure which one is more highly regarded. The courses at Chateau Elan were designed by Denis Griffiths, who seems to have done much of his work in the southeast. I’m not terribly familiar with his name but he designed one of my Northern California favorites – Diablo Grande’s Ranch Course.

We played from the green tees which are 71.1/132/6355. If you want a bit more of a challenge then you can step back to the tips which are 73.1/135/6735. I thought the course was very playable, especially for an East Coast course. Some of the woods are cleaned out so you may be able to find the golf ball.

Most of the difficulty on the Woodlands results from the natural terrain. The resort is located in an area where you get some decent elevation changes. As you’ll see from my pictures there are a mix of uphill and downhill shots – both from the tees and the fairways. Catching shots cleanly from uneven lies and getting the flights right will help immensely for your scorecard.

While the par-5’s have a bit of quirk to them, the par-3’s stood out as the best holes. Specifically, the 2nd and 13th holes were my favorites. The 2nd is a 198 yard, downhill par-3. It comes early in the round so you’ll have to try to muster up the courage to carry the ball over a hazard! It is an intimidating par-3, especially so early in the round.

The 13th is 164 yards and has a creek that snakes its way along the left half of the green. The pin was tucked behind the creek and forced me to get the distance just right, in order to end up pin-high. If you decide to take on that left side then it could lead to some nervous moments. You can also bail out to the right if you don’t have the correct club!

The conditions on the Woodlands were very nice. The course took on five inches of rain recently but I never would have guessed. It was cart path only as a precautionary measure, however there wasn’t any standing water or any squishy spots. The fairways were full and the ball sat up nicely. The greens are bent grass and had mostly recovered from a tough summer, according to the staff. The greens were smooth. For the $50 green fee we weren’t disappointed.

If you are a public golfer in the Atlanta area, or just traveling through, then I’d suggest checking out the Woodlands. It isn’t a course that is packed full of homes and the design is above average. If things worked out on future travels I wouldn’t mind trying the other courses at Chateau Elan.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):