Capitol Hill Golf Course Boosts Prattville’s Economy
capitol hill golf course, economic growth, golf, robert trent jones golf trail,
Increases in tax revenue, revved up commercial development and a visit from the top female players in golf: It’s all par for the course in Prattville, thanks to the location of the Robert Trent Jones Capitol Hill golf course.
“Prattville is booming,” says Mike Beverly, director of golf at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Capitol Hill.
The numbers support that assessment. Lodging tax revenues are up from $100,000 a bit more than a decade ago to $1.5 million annually currently.
Across Alabama, the RTJ Trail – 26 golf courses at 11 sites, with 468 holes of golf, plus eight hotels – has brought people, companies, investments, profits and, of course, golfers to the state for nearly 20 years.
Capitol Hill opened in 1999 and is the only site with three championship courses: The Senator, The Judge and The Legislator. Scenic shots like hole one on The Judge – it drops 200 feet from tee to green – caught the eyes of the LPGA.
In September 2007, Capitol Hill hosted the first Navistar LPGA Classic. The best women golfers – including 23 of the top 25 2007 money winners and eight of the 10 top-ranked players in the world – competed at Capitol Hill.
“It was a full field of 144, and a very strong field,” Beverly says. “The purse was $1.3 million.”
This amount, says Beverly, is a great number for a first-year event. He notes volunteers from the former Chick-fil-A event converged in droves on his course to stay involved with an LPGA stop.
The economic impact of having the LPGA event is even higher, says Bill Lang, public relations director for RTJ Golf Trail and Resort Collection. More than $6 million is a conservative estimate, he says, not counting intangibles such as international exposure for Prattville, Ala.
Prior to the Navistar LPGA Classic, Capitol Hill hosted the Nationwide Tour Championship for five years. Those five events brought in $20 million in River Region economic impact, according to a University of Alabama study.
In addition, the Greater Montgomery area sees at least $2 million a year on hotel stays alone from the Capitol Hill courses, not counting money that golfers on the RTJ Trail spend at area businesses.
Beverly says being on the trail has been phenomenal for the area, helping to draw hotels and restaurants along with the golfers who come to test their skills on 54 Capitol Hill holes of championship golf.
The trail is an investment of the Retirement Systems of Alabama and the brainchild of its boss, Dr. David Bronner, who wanted to financially strengthen the state and the retirement system. Based in Montgomery, Bronner often plays Capitol Hill.
“Dr. Bronner has been in several times recently,” Beverly says. “He’s one sharp guy.”
View Related Video
Story by Paul Hughes
Photo by Wes Aldridge
