My Town: Hubert Green

Limestone Springs is a public facility just outside the city that is carved into the mountains.

Hubert Green spent his youth at CC of Birmingham, honing a swing that would earn him a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Often he spotted a group of men inside the clubhouse playing cards. "I used to laugh at these old guys there all the time," he recalled, only to chuckle himself. "Now I'm one of them."

Since being treated for oral cancer in the early 2000s, Green, 63, doesn't play much golf. Yet he has become a regular at the club's afternoon bridge game.

If something good came from Green's illness, it was the chance to return to his birthplace in 2004. "Birmingham has this beautiful rolling terrain," said Green of Alabama's largest city. "It's a great place to live."

COURSES

It's not much of a surprise, seeing that I'm a member at CC of Birmingham and at Shoal Creek CC, but I think both courses are among the area's best. They're challenging to better players but aren't so difficult as to make you want to give up the game.

I'd throw Greystone G&CC into that category, too. The Founders Course there hosted a Champions Tour event from 1992-2005, and it was always one of the stops that the guys spoke of fondly.

Just outside of the city is Limestone Springs GC

, a public facility Jerry Pate designed that opened a little more than 10 years ago. It's carved into the mountains and has some great views. People who play there have nothing but good things to say about the course.

WHERE TO STAY

The best hotel in the area is the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort. You've got access to two Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail facilities, plus it's got about every amenity you can think of...Another place to consider is the Wynfrey Hotel, about 15 minutes from down-town. It's a quaint building in and of itself, and it's adjacent to a mall with lots of shopping and other activities.

DON'T MISS

Birmingham used to be a big steel town, and in the early 1900s, the world's largest cast- iron statue was made there. It represents Vulcan, the god of fire, and overlooks the city as part of Vulcan Park and Museum...Arlington Antebellum Home & Gardens is a sprawling Southern mansion from the 1840s that was spared destruction by Union forces during the Civil War...Birmingham Botanical Gardens has more than 10,000 different plants and is home to the largest public horticulture library in the country...A neat place to take kids if you're traveling with the family is the McWane Science Center. It's downtown and has all sorts of interactive exhibits to keep their attention.

The Alabama Theatre is a classic old movie hall from the 1920s that's been restored (above, courtesy of theatre). The world's largest iron statue overlooks the city as part of Vulcan Park and Museum (below, courtesy of museum).