Refuge Golf Club at Gulf State Park

I have played this course both times I travelled to Gulf Shores in the last 3 years. It is a fun course to play. Very flat with just enough water to get you in trouble. The fairways are wide and most holes dog leg left or right. Being on the coast the soil is sandy and typically reclaimed from marshy terrain. Playing in late November the fairways were a little sparse but the grass was still green. The greens were mostly in great shape although the day we played the greens on the back nine needed a trim.
Being a state park course it needs a little more funding to fix things like bumpy cart paths and worn tee markers but overall for the money I felt that being a mediocre golfer at best I would play this course again. It was not crowded and even when other golfers caught up to us they did not push us.

The course was in Great condition , Had a great time

Course is nice but needs work. Good course for the price but would not pay full price.

Great Course. State needs to put the money into it to make it better

Fairways were skimpy and greens were rough did like the course layout but the course needs work

Course was in much better condition than previous times I've played it. Greens were in good shape. Will definitely play it again soon.

Cart paths are VERY rough from underlying tree roots. Driving adjacent to the cart path was a rough ride too. Too many places close to greens that had no grass. First cut was so tall that finding a ball 3 feet off the fairway was nearly impossible. I will not return to this course until the State of Alabama spends some money

I do not agree with the reviewers that gave this course only 1 star. This course just needs some work. The fairways were spotty in areas, but I did not encounter any areas that were pure dirt or sand. The greens do need to be mowed, however -- they were very soft and extremely slow.
Pace of play was a bit slow on the front nine due to one slow group, but after they quit at the turn, the back nine went fast.
I will play this course again the next time I'm in Gulf Shores and hopefully they will continue to make improvements.

The only thing missing from this dog track was a betting window. The condition was terrible. We paid for 18 and left after 9, I have never done that before. If this was my home course, I would move my double wide!

The course is owned by the state so I was comparing it to oak mtn. State park. It is in very bad shape. The fairways are basically sand and the greens need cut bc it is too slow. The 16$ price does make for a decent round if you wanna get some reps in, but you can't score well.

We were on our vacation and wanted to play some golf while in Gulf Shores. The State Park-Refuge had been recommended to us and it was very close to our condo. We of course read the reviews about the course and were surprised at the rating. Our experience was far from the lower ratings. We really liked the layout of the course. We agree there were a few areas that could use some attention but with the amount of rain there had been, the course manager had no control over that. The fairways were nice and open and the doglegs were fun. The food at the grill was DELICIOUS and the lady that cooked it was a gem. The guy at the pro shop apologized for some of the areas on the course that had been affected by the ongoing rain and told us of the it immediate plans to resolve this. So, would we choose to play there again? Absolutely. We didn't want to pay the very prices of some other courses. We got way more than our money's worth here and had a wonderful day at the course and my husband and myself only lost 2 balls total. It was indeed a good day to be a golfer.

Worst course I have ever played. It has tremendous potential. Needs a ton of work. Poorly maintained. You have a terrible lie when you hit in the middle of the fairway. Greens and tee boxes are burnt up.

Do not Play this Course. It is in Terrible shape. at least 10 of the holes don't have a real Fairway. It is either Dirt or Grass is so High feels like playing out of the Rough. The Greens are cut so high feel like you are putting on a Fairway. Don't waste your money on this course. And this comes from someone who uses to love this course growing up. Something has happen in the last 12 months. Picture is example of one of the Holes. Also on Hole 8 there is a huge Hole in the Middle of the Fairway. I can only Assume it was a gopher that created Hole. Also since we were the 1st group off for the day It seemed like Grounds Keepers didn't care about Quality because on 3 Holes they had taken Flag out and didn't put it back. Which means we had to drive up and put flag in or just hit a blind shot into the Green.

This course was in terrible shape and the pro told me that the State Park was not going to spend the money to fix it up. The greens were not cut and were absolutely the worst I have played on. The fairways had large places where there was not any grass at all. I told the pro that I would not be back and he said he didn't blame me, that he would not pay that kind of money to play in those conditions. We will just play Perdido Bay Golf course while we are in Orange Beach from now on.

Fairways in poor condition. Used heavy machinery to scrape. Fairways and it did not work no reason to be in such poor shape. As we have had plenty of rain

Really nice course for the money. Was playing by myself so they paired me up with another group. Had a great time!

I wouldn't play there The greens were so slow ! Had to take a full back swing with the putter on 25 ft putt!

Played from the tips. Great layout and yardages for every hole. Course was in very poor condition though - fairways and tee boxes were about half bare, and the greens needed to be cut about 70% shorter. Greens would have made excellent fairways. Sand traps were all in great shape though. Another golfer said the state of Alabama has severely cut funding of the state park golf courses which is probably the cause of the bad condition. Sad thing is, the poor conditions keep golfers from coming and supporting the course. There were around eight vehicles in the parking lot at 11:30 a.m. on a gorgeous Saturday morning.

If I would have known the course fairways were just aerated and the greens were about 1/2" high grass, I wouldn't have booked tee times. I think Golf Now should have given me that information before I booked. It was in terrible condition. It wasn't worth the money. Sorry I booked it knowing over the last ten years it hs