I recently made the decision to move from Charlottesville, VA to Dallas, TX. Like so many decisions in life it wasn’t an easy one but I’m hopeful that it will be a good career move. If there is a “play golf everyday” job out there someone wants to throw my way, I’m all ears, ha!
Anyway, a friend joined me for the road trip and our route took us through/around Birmingham. I had my eye on Farmlinks Golf Club but they aerated either the day before or the day we were going through. Darn! I’ve tried to play there a couple times now and it just hasn’t worked yet.
I’ve played some of the RTJ Golf Trail courses in the area so I started looking at Timberline Golf Club, which looked good and was about 30 minutes south of Birmingham. The tee sheet seemed wide open (it was!) so I guided the rental truck and trailer a bit south for us to check out Timberline.
Timberline is a Jerry Pate design and Pate seems to have done much of his work in the southeast. He has been involved with some big-name courses in the region including: Old Waverly, The Preserve, Dancing Rabbit, Kiva Dunes, Limestone Springs and the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook – where the PGA Tour plays. I’ve played Old Waverly (which was great) and hope to make it to these other courses one day.
The one thing that you’ll probably notice at Timberline is just how good the terrain is for golf! The Birmingham area is hilly and that adds plenty of interest to Timberline. Some courses can get a little wacky with all the up and down but I didn’t find that to be the case here. There are some neat elevated tees at Timberline and the course presents well visually!
The opening holes play near a lake before you head into the hills on the 4th hole. From there is a nice mix of uphill and downhill holes until you get to the 17th and 18th, which play in that flatter area near the clubhouse.
The 5th, 7th and 16th at Timberline were my favorite holes, because of their elevated tees! The 5th is a driveable par-4 that plays 288 yards from the tips. You can either hit a mid iron down to the fairway or try to drive the green, which has all sorts of mounding around it. If you layup then your approach will be semi-blind as the green sits in a hillside.
The 7th and 16th are long par-3’s that play downhill. The 7th is probably two clubs less than the yardage and the ball will hang in the air a long time! The 16th plays through a chute of trees so you’ll need a straight shot there.
We played the black tees which are 71.5/133/6444. The blues here are actually longer than the blacks, which is a bit odd. Normally those tee colors are flipped! Timberline plays as a par-71 with four par-5’s, five par-3’s and the rest par-4’s.
Most of the trouble at the course comes from tree-lined fairways. There are many pines and hardwoods which look great, but some holes really get tight (the 8th, for example). I think a tree removal project would make the course lots more playable!
The conditions were nice and we felt like we got a good deal with the $45 afternoon rate. There are some areas that have been re-sodded and a couple spots that could use some TLC, but I ended up with full lies in the fairways. Around the greens lies were tight. The greens were pure and receptive. They rolled well, just a bit slower than they looked.
If you are in Alabama to check out the RTJ courses then adding a round at Timberline wouldn’t be a bad option. The course didn’t disappoint as one of the many higher quality options in the Birmingham area.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):