The city of Birmingham, AL., is loaded with history. Some of that history, such as the Birmingham Civil Rights and Institure, pouches you in the gut. Some honors baseball, such as the Negro Southen League Museum; Rickwood Field, the country’s oldest active professional ballpark (1910), where a 17-year-old Willie Mays – born in Westfield less than 10 miles away – helped the Birmingham Black Barons into the 1948 Negro World Series against the Homestead Grays.
Speed and engineering are displayed at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, which meticulously shows off an incredible collection of everything from early motorcycles and automobiles to today’s high-tech Porsches and Indy and F1 race cars.
These attractions – and testaments to American history – are worth a few hours – if not more – of your time and sentiments before heading to SAW’s BBQ for ribs, stuffed taters (with pork and chicken), turnip greens, and perhaps even a smoked hot dog.
For golfers, however, there is one more “must-see’’ destination. Or in the case of Highland Park Golf Course, a “must play.’’
Opened in 1903 as the nine-hole Birmingham Country Club, Highland Park is Alabama’s oldest golf course and one of the state’s top public layouts. The 5,800-yard, par 70 course, managed by Troon, has some exhilarating elevation changes – a few of which offer great views of the downtown Birmingham skyline.
Don’t let the short yardage fool you. Highland Park’s narrow, rolling fairways and fast bentgrass greens protect it from all but the best players going low. In fact, given the growing popularity of “short’’ courses (see Tom Doak’s Sedge Valley at Sand Valley Resort in Nekoosa, WI), one can argue that Highland Park was ahead of its time.
“Every day I meet people who, after they’ve played their first rounds here, say how much they enjoyed the golf course,’’ said Highland Park General Manager Evan Godfrey. “They say, ‘I didn’t beat myself up.’ Everyone claims it to be the most fun round they’ve ever had.’’
Bobby Jones enjoyed Highland Park, too. In 1916 – at the age of 14 – Jones won the Birmingham Country Club Invitational. The Club, by the way, in 1927 moved to its present location about one mile from Highland Park.
That same year, Highland Park – then at 18 holes – became a municipal course under the direction of the City of Birmingham Parks and Recreation Department.
A pair of changes, beginning in 1998, led to much of the modern-day success of Highland Park. One was the acquisition of the course by Honours Golf, a company led by Bob Barrett, a legendary Alabama PGA professional who spent more than 13 years (1977-91) as Club Manager and Director of Golf at the fabled Shoal Creek Club in Birmingham. From 1991-93, Barrett was vice president of operations (1991-93) for Sunbelt Golf, the management company for the fledgling Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama.
Second, in 1999, the late Bob Cupp oversaw a seven-month renovation of Highland Park, most of which was to its bunkers and greens. The course reopened in March 2020.
Check out the plaque on the first tee at Highland Park, which honors Birmingham native Charley Boswell. Blinded in combat in World War II, Boswell is to the blind golf community what Bear Bryant is to Alabama football. Boswell won 17 national blind golf championships. On Oct. 5, 1956, he shot 81 at Highland Park, which was then believed to be a world record for a blind golfer.
Highland Park receives approximately 50,000 rounds of play annually – an impressive number given that seasonal play limits the length of daylight hours in the late Fall and Winter. But regardless of the season, put Highland Park on your “must play’’ list on your next – or first – visit to Birmingham.
Feature Photo: Highland Park Golf Course
