Renaissance opens its first Alabama resort, along the RTJ Golf Trail

Renaissance Hotels & Resorts has opened the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa, the first Renaissance resort in Alabama. Situated along the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail near Birmingham, the 259-room resort is owned and operated by PCH Hotels and Resorts, the hotel management division affiliated with the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which funded the RTJ Trail.

Each room of the Ross Bridge resort has a balcony overlooking the golf course, a massive layout covering more than 300 acres and stretching 8,150 yards from the back tees. An 800-foot waterfall empties into a man-made lake and serves as Ross Bridge's signature. The resort also features a 12,000-square-foot spa and 20,000 square feet of meeting space.

Believe it or not, the Ross Bridge course isn't the only 8,000-yard course among the 20-plus courses on the RTJ Trail. The first to break the 8,000-yard barrier was the Fighting Joe, which opened earlier this year The Shoals. Fighting Joe was named in honor of "Fighting" Joe Wheeler, one of the few men who served in the Confederate Army as well as the U.S. Army.

The Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa is RSA's fifth Marriott-brand resort. Other RSA-developed Marriott properties on Alabama's RTJ Golf Trail include the Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa in Point Clear, the Montgomery Marriott Prattville Hotel and Conference Center at Capitol Hill in Prattville, the Auburn Marriott Opelika Hotel and Conference Center at Grand National in Opelika, and the Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa in Florence.

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