RTJ Golf Trail at Grand National (Lake Course)

Twelve holes on the water’s edge.

Grand National sits on the shores of Lake Saugahatchee, just off I-85 at Opelika and a few miles from Auburn University. It is the 54-hole east Alabama site of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, and the Trail’s own literature says Jones called it the single greatest natural site for golf he had ever seen. The Lake Course is the more scenic of its two championship eighteens: 12 of its holes run along the shore, and its four par threes include an island green. It is fully public, bookable online a week ahead or through the Trail’s package desk up to a year out.

RTJ Golf Trail at Grand National (Lake Course) green fees and tee times.

Since 1 June 2026 the Trail has taken advance tee times only online, through rtjgolf.com or the RTJ Golf app; the golf shop’s phone line now handles same-day play only. Public golfers can book seven days ahead. A credit card secures the time but is not charged until you check in. Further out, RTJ Reservations (1-800-949-4444, option 2, weekdays 9am–6pm Eastern) builds golf or golf-and-hotel packages from 12 months to seven days before play, with a US$100 deposit per person and the balance due 30 days before arrival. Singles are accepted; fivesomes are not. The Trail publishes no handicap requirement. If the shop closes the course for rain, you get a rain check valid for a year.

The courses at RTJ Golf Trail at Grand National (Lake Course).

Lake Course

Par 72, 7,314 yards from the purples. Its par threes are the 197-yard 3rd, the 213-yard 8th, the island 15th and the 214-yard 17th. The hardest hole on the card is the 2nd, a 428-yard par four from the back. Golfweek ranked it third among Alabama’s public-access courses for 2025.

Links Course

The other championship eighteen is longer, a par 72 of 7,404 yards from the purples, and has been renovated with new tees, bunkers and TifEagle UltraDwarf greens. The Trail’s guide singles out its 471-yard par-four 18th as the strongest finishing hole, and the 11th is a 260-yard par three from the tips.

Short Course

Eighteen par threes, 3,126 yards and par 54, with more than half the holes touching the lake. Renovated in 2022 with TifEagle UltraDwarf greens, it was ranked eighth in Golfweek’s 2025 list of public-access short and par-three courses. Its hardest hole on the card is the 9th, 166 yards from the purples.

The round, in perspective.

Grand National opened in August 1992 as the Trail’s fourth site, on 650 acres that the Opelika Water Board leases at no cost to the Retirement Systems of Alabama, the state pension fund. The lake is the city’s drinking-water reservoir, still used by boats, so the bridges that carry golfers across it were built high enough for boats to pass underneath. On the current scorecard the Lake is a par 72 of 7,314 yards from the purple tees, slope 139, coming down to 4,873 yards from the teal. The 15th, 230 yards from the back to a green ringed by water, is the hole the Trail’s own guide suggests may be the prettiest on its network. It is Auburn University’s home course and has staged NCAA Division I championships, LPGA and Korn Ferry Tour events, and the PGA Tour’s Barbasol Championship from 2015 to 2017.

Know before you go.

Carts

Walking allowed; carts included in every special

Dress

Collared shirt with sleeves; slacks or knee-length shorts

Coolers

Personal coolers and ice chests not allowed

Group size

Up to four per tee time, 10-minute intervals

Pace

Trail expects 4 hours 20 minutes

Range

Closed for part of every Tuesday

Make the trip work.

Opelika, like the rest of the Trail, runs on Central time, an hour behind Atlanta, which matters if you fly in on the morning of a round. The Trail asks you to arrive 30 minutes before your tee time and expects 4 hours 20 minutes for 18 holes. The Shed, the food truck beside the range, is closed until 1 March 2027, so in winter eat at the clubhouse grill or the resort. Each Trail site keeps its own set of rental clubs; pull trolleys are allowed but not hired out.

Grand National is at 3000 Robert Trent Jones Trail, Opelika, close to I-85. The Trail’s mileage chart puts it 102 miles from Atlanta’s airport, the usual gateway for international flights, and 117 miles from Birmingham’s; Montgomery’s small airport is closest, at 74 miles. Touring the Trail by car, Capitol Hill in Prattville is 77 miles away, Oxmoor Valley 117 and Ross Bridge 119.

Where it is.

Somewhere to settle in.

The Auburn Marriott Opelika Resort & Spa at Grand National overlooks the lake and the courses, with 221 rooms and 21 suites, a 20,000-square-foot spa and three pools; RTJ Reservations can bundle it into a package, or call the hotel on 334-741-9292. For groups, the Mickelson and Morris Oster Golf Houses look over the Lake Course, sleep eight and have a private putting green. The Trail also lists Heritage House, about 8 miles away, and chain hotels in Opelika about 9 miles off.

Make a trip of it.

With two days here, play both championship eighteens; the Short Course makes an easy third round. Capitol Hill, the Trail’s three-course site in Prattville outside Montgomery, is 77 miles west; its Judge course ranked second in Golfweek’s 2025 Alabama list, one place above the Lake. Silver Lakes, between Anniston and Gadsden, is 116 miles north. Away from golf, Auburn University’s campus is a few miles down the road, and Lake Saugahatchee itself is open for fishing and boating.

Find your season.

Spring and autumn suit Opelika best, and the Trail’s fall special ran from 8 September to 15 November in 2026. The Lake’s 2027 dates to plan around are greens aerification on 16–17 March, fuller tee, fairway and green aerification on 5–9 July with 14 days of recovery, and overseeding on 1–4 November, when carts stay in the rough.