Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail - Alabama

Miles Drive: 5162



After the debauchery of spending 2 days in New Orleans, I was excited to restart of golf road trip again. One thing I wouldn't recommend, driving 5 hours hungover after spending way too much time on Bourbon Street. I had never driven east and New Orleans before and I must say Alabama is a very beautiful state. The golf courses here are just absolutely breathtaking. I can only imagine this place in the fall when the leaves turn red and orange.

It's been 1.5 weeks since I played 6 straight days of golf in Texas and my body is still sore from that experience. However, that wasn't gonna stop me from heading east to one of the destinations I had set out from the beginning, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. (1906-2000) has designed/redesigned about 500 golf courses in his lifetime including: Spyglass, Firestone, Augusta National (redesign), and Olympic Club (redesign.) He started designing the RTJ Trail in 1992 and his company added 2 additional courses after his death. What resulted was an 11 site, 468 hole golf trail that spans across Alabama.

I had originally planned to spend about 1 week in Alabama starting at the NW corner of Alabama at Muscle Shoals then heading SW through Birmingham, Montgomery, and finish in Auburn/Opelika. However, since my road trip might come to an end in a few weeks because of a career opportunity, I decided to cut the RTJ Trail short so I can enjoy golf in the Carolinas. So instead, I only played the Capitol Hill Judge Course in Montgomery and the Grand National Lakes Course in Auburn/Opelika.

The two courses I played were distinctly different yet shared some similarities designed the course. The over-the-water Par 3's and the tree lined fairways puts emphasis on accuracy. Each course has plenty of risk/reward scenarios that make you think if pulling out that 3-wood from the fairway was a smart idea (and it certainly wasn't for me today...)

The Capitol Hill Judge Course was longer of the 2 courses I played measuring 7813 yards from the tips. There was even a 711 yard Par 5!! I was humbled when I picked the middle tee box and it still measured 6517 yards. I ended up walking the course because I hadn't walk one since Palm Springs. It was some of the best 8.2 miles I've ever walked on a course.

The Grand National Lake Course was even prettier than Capitol Hill Judge! Even though it was not as long, there were plenty of chances to get in trouble around the course. The placement of the bunkers in the middle of the fairway makes you think to go left, right, or right over the bunker on the tee box. This is where course management comes to play. Instead of pulling out the driver on every hole, it was smarter to pull out a 5-iron or 3 iron and knock the ball down the middle. Too bad I wasn't that smart and my score definitely suffered today :)

The past few days my drives and irons would come and go. I can keep it in play and get myself out of trouble on most holes to have a chance to save par or bogey. My pitches and chips were pretty consistent for me to get the ball within 10-15ft of the cup, but here is where the trouble starts. I could not putt if my life depended on it!! It was just horrendous! Down right ugly and embarrassing! I just could not feel the ball with my putter, especially with that fat Superstroke grip I had on the putter. I think I'm getting to a point in my game where I'm not using my hands anymore on my putts and the feel of the ball on the putter face is more important. So after my round, I head over to the sporting goods store, ripped off the fatso grip and bought much smaller grip so I can have the feel back in my putts again. I'm also changing back my putting grip style to have the index finger one the shaft for more control. We'll see if that helps when I play on Friday.

Now one of the coolest thing happened today when I was paired up with this nice gentlemen. I was about to tee off by myself when he drove up and asked if he could join me. "My name is Ronald," he introduced himself. He told me he grew up here and now lives in New Zealand. I was thinking that is pretty cool and he still comes back home to see family. Throughout the round we chatted about travels, living abroad, and debated if there were alligators in the lakes around the course (there was.) It wasn't until the back nine when I asked what he did before retirement. He said, "I used to be the Bass player for The Commodores (Brick house, Easy, Nightshift) for 25 years playing with Lionel Ritchie." I was thinking, "Wow! I'm playing with Ronald LaPread and he just bought me a diet coke!" Now, that's pretty cool!

Here are the picture from the last 2 days. Enjoy!!

What's in My Bag

I've been tinkering with the clubs in my bag for about 1 year now and I think I finally got the right combination. Here is what's in my bag for the rest of the trip...




Irons

Mizuno MP-H4 3-PW with Project X PXi 5.5 Shaft

I've played with my new Mizuno MP-H4 irons now for about 10 rounds and I am very impressed with the iron and the shaft I got on them. The irons are super forgiving for the long irons and very accurate with short irons. Mizuno designed these irons with the larger soles for the longer irons and progressed the soles thinner as the irons gets shorter. The result is the 4-iron is as easy to hit as the 9-iron. I've definitely had a few 180 - 200 yard shots these past few rounds that I was able to have them land softly on the green from that distance.

 Woods

Ping G20 10.5 degree Driver with Aldila NVS 55 Stiff Shaft
Ping G20 3-Wood, Ping G20 Hybrid 23 degree

I did the coolest thing today. Hwan and I got up in the morning and headed to the Ping factory and did a custom fitting by a fitting professional at Ping! I've always liked Ping drivers ever since I got my first set of woods in 2006 so getting to go to the Ping factory was really a treat. The driver use to be my most consistent club in my bag. As weird as that sounds, I was able to hit a nice fade on my Ping G5 driver consistently for about 230-240 yards. After I moved back from Singapore I wanted to upgrade my driver to the new G20 driver. I had mistakenly (through some bad advise from the Golfsmith sales guy) bought the Regular shaft on the G20 when I should be hitting a Stiff shaft. The G20 never had any control with that R shaft so I replaced the shaft with the ProLaunch Blue shaft from my G5 and cut the driver down to 44.5 inches. What a huge mistake that was! I was even more inconsistent and I barely hit the club further than my 3 wood. So today I got properly fitting for a new shaft at Ping. It was either that or get a new club and I figured this was a MUCH cheaper option. I ended up getting the Aldila NVS 55 Stiff Shaft that's lighter and with a higher ball flight. Besides, it's burnt orange (same school color at THE University of Texas at Austin) so I had to get it. I also went back to the 45.75in standard length to get more distance on the driver. So the rule of thumb from now on...if it ain't broke, don't fit it. I should have just bought the standard S-shaft with the first place with stock everything. It would have been a much cheaper option than all the tinkering I've done with this driver.

 Wedges

Titleist Vokey 52 and 56 degree SM4 Wedges

I've had these Vokey wedges for about 9 months now and I absolutely love them. I had and old set of Mizuno wedges that I replaced because the bounce on my previous wedges were too low. I was digging into the ground too much instead of using the bounce on the club and hearing that "thump" sound when the ball is struck well. I'm finally able to get some decent amount of spin on my pitches and have been shredding some of the softer golf balls on the market. The ball stops on a dime now and I can really target the pin from 100 yards in.

 Putter

Titleist Scotty Cameron Newport 2 Blade Putter with SuperStroke Slim grip

If you've played golf with me in the past few years, you know the putter was something I've been struggling with for years. I was even dumb enough to buy one of those heavy putters (one of the worst golf purchases of all time.) It was like taking 3 wedges together and trying to put with that weight. I also found that the putter I was using was too long for me and I had grip down on the putter which caused the weighting to be off. So over Christmas, I bought myself a used Scotty Cameron putter on eBay (can't justify the cost of a new one). I got the putter in 33in length and put on a SuperStoke Slim grip on the bad boy. The difference has been night and day. I'm beginning to develop a lot more touch on the short putts. The long putts are still a work in progress. So this trip my putting average has decreased from 2.0 to 1.78 per round. This will definitely help save a few strokes a round.

Silver Rock Golf Resort

Silver Rock Golf Resort
Yards: 6263, Par: 72, Slope: 70.1/127
Score: 95, Putting Average: 1.9
Miles Walked: 7.3
Total Miles Walked: 13.6

Yesterday I played an Arnold Palmer Signature Course called SilverRock Golf Resort in La Quinta, CA. The course is situated against the Santa Rosa Mountains with lush fairways and greens. I pack my bags on my push cart again and ventured on to the driving range. Since my new irons were being re-gripped, I played with my old set one last time. It was a fitting retirement for those clubs I've had for so long. 

As I was hitting at the range, a gentlemen by the Tour Lock Pro tent was watching me hit. "Your shoulders are lined up wrong," he said. He take a club from my bag and showed me where my shoulders should point and had me hit my driver. I took a nice swing at the ball and the slice/fade problem went away. I thought to myself, "Duh, so that's what I've been doing wrong in these past few weeks." I had went back to my old swing and this one little adjustment changed everything. "My name is Brad Benkey. Do you want to trying something with your driver to make it hit straighter and more solid?" he said. Um yeah, who wouldn't! He took my driver to his tent and measured the balance of the club and found that it was way off balance. Not surprising since I had my driver re-shafted a few months ago and it never really felt right. He proceeded to put in a counter weight inside my grip and remeasured. I took a swing with the newly balanced club and BOOM, 280 yards down the center. The driver did feel much more solid and the drives were nice and laser like. Thank for the fix Brad!

After the range I walked up to the first tee and got paired up with Steve, Paul, and Mark. Steve is from Minnesota and played the course last week. Paul and Mark are from Edmonton, Canada and has winter homes in La Quinta so they come down here a few months out of the year. Steve could hit the ball a mile and would easily outdrive us by about 20 yards. I could tell that Paul and Mark have been friends for a long time. The way they joke around and talk trash kinda reminds me of my golf rounds with friends. I only hope I'm fortunate enough to have the same kind of banter with my friends 20 years from now. Overall it was a great course with lots of areas to get into trouble. You have to be pretty accurate with your shots or else you are either in the sand or water. We got up to the 17th hole and it was a 209 yard par 3 over water with a 3 club face wind. I had to hit my 3 wood to even have it hit land. I posted a picture of the hole below so you can see how intimidating that hole was.

I'm off to playing the TPC Stadium today but I think I'll ride since my legs are kinda tired from walking 2 days in a row. Enjoy the pics from yesterday.

17th hole, 209 yard Par 3

Paul, Mark, and Steve

First Day of the Trip

Miles Driven: 468 Miles

Today is my first day of the trip and I drove 7 1/2 hours from Fremont to Palm Desert. I use to drive a lot for work between SF and Sacramento but I had forgotten how tiring these long drives could be. Before I left, I downloaded a few audiobooks since I'll have a lot of windshield time in front of me these next few months. I've always wanted to read more books and this is a great way to kill two birds with one stone.

I got into Palm Desert at about 4:30pm and checked into the Airbnb place I'm staying. My host Gail had the room all set up with a mini fridge and coffee maker in the room. Not bad for $55/ night! This just means I can shift my budget to playing better course while I'm here. After I got here the UPS guy came and dropped off my new toys for the trip.

Last Thursday night I made an impulse buy at 3am during one of my usual sleepless nights. I've been playing with the same irons since 2006 (Mizuno MX-23) and have been thinking about upgrading to a new set for a while now. I had reshafted the MX-23 with the Project X 5.5 and found it to be a bit harsh to play with than the S300 I had before. While I liked playing with the MX-23 I started thinking that technology must have changed over the past 7 years. If you think about it, the iPhone wasn't even out when I first started playing with these irons! After being honest (and I mean harshly honest) about the way I hit my long iron, I wanted to go with something more forgiving in the long irons (3-6) without giving up much feel and control in my scoring irons (7-PW.) So I went on ebay and found a set of the new Mizuno MP-H4 irons with the Project X PXi 5.5 shaft. These irons had some great reviews and it came with the new Project X shafts that's suppose to be lighter and softer than the current ones I have. I'm going to compare them tomorrow with my old set and will provide a full report in my blog after a few rounds. So excited!!

I'm in Palm Desert for 10 days (until April 4th) and have already booked some awesome course. So far I've booked Westin Mission Hills - Peter Dye Course, Silver Rock Golf Club, TPC West Stadium Course (don't hate), and Classic Club Golf. I'll end up playing Indian Wells - Players Course next week when I meet up with a friend. More to come on how I play these courses.

Fremont to Palm Desert

Not a bad way to travel

The set up

This is much easier than a suitcase

The new clubs!