ROBERT TRENT JONES GOLF TRAIL FEATURED ON THE ALABAMA EXPERIENCE

TUSCALOOSA--Thousands of people come to Alabama every year by jet, car, and bus, people who several years ago would never had thought about coming to the state. THE ALABAMA EXPERIENCE documentary series looks at what’s attracting them—The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

"One of a Kind" (8 p.m., Thursday, March 4, on Alabama Public Television) features two of the men behind this remarkable project: Dr. David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, who proposed the Trail and spearheaded its construction, and legendary golf course designer Robert Trent Jones.

Proclaimed as "the best thing ever done for public golf" by Golf Digest magazine, the Robert Trent Jones Trail is arguably the golf phenomenon of the nineties.

No single architect has had more impact on the game than Robert Trent Jones. He is, simply stated, the father of modern golf architecture in America. Through his formal training in agriculture, engineering, and architecture in a self-designed curriculum at Cornell University in the late 1920s, Jones became the first scientifically trained architect in golf history.

Some of Jones’ trademark elements that have helped to change the game include large, boldly contoured greens, which allow for extra pin positions, and which can be a hazard themselves if a player finds himself on the wrong side; multiple tee positions, which allow each hole to be played differently or at least from varying distances; large, strategically placed fairway bunkers, which penalize the golfer for wayward tee shots; and water hazards, which front or partially surround greens, requiring high and accurate approach or tee shots for par to be achieved.

"One of a Kind" includes beautiful shots of the twenty-one courses at eight locations on the Trail: Hampton Cove near Huntsville; Silver Lakes, between Gadsden and Anniston; Oxmoor Valley in Birmingham; Grand National in Opelika; Cambrian Ridge in Greenville; Highland Oaks in Dothan; Magnolia Grove in Mobile; and, the latest addition, Capitol Hill in Prattville.

The Alabama Experience is a production of The University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio.