RTJ GOLF TRAIL AT THE SHOALS
🇺🇸 Muscle Shoals, AL, USA
Designed by Roger Rulewich

Fighting Joe is one of two eighteen-hole courses at the RTJ Golf Trail at The Shoals facility in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Designed by Roger Rulewich, a longtime associate of Robert Trent Jones Sr. who completed several Trail courses after Jones's death in 2000, the layout reflects the design principles established across the Trail system: strategic bunkering, large undulating greens, and multiple tee boxes that accommodate a wide range of skill levels. The course opened as part of the Trail's expansion in northwest Alabama, complementing the Schoolmaster course at the same property.
The routing takes advantage of the rolling terrain characteristic of the Tennessee River Valley region. Elevation changes create visual interest and strategic variety, with holes playing both uphill and downhill across wooded corridors and more open meadow areas. Water features appear on several holes, typical of Trail designs, requiring carries and framing approach shots. The greens are generous in size but feature significant internal contour, rewarding accurate iron play while penalizing poor lag putting.
The course name references Joseph Wheeler, a Confederate cavalry general who later served as a U.S. Army general and congressman from Alabama. This historical naming convention ties the facility to the local heritage of the Shoals region. The Trail's public-access model makes Fighting Joe available to daily-fee players at rates well below comparable resort courses, part of the economic development mission that has defined the Trail since its founding in the 1990s.
Reviews
Played my college conference tournament here. They can make this place impossibly hard. Very proper. Highly recommend
FAQ
Ratings, design, and course details pulled from Course Vaults.
Fighting Joe at RTJ Golf Trail at The Shoals has a Course Vaults score of 7.6 out of 10 based on 14 explicit golfer ratings.
Fighting Joe was designed by Roger Rulewich.
Yes. Fighting Joe at RTJ Golf Trail at The Shoals is listed as welcoming public or guest play on Course Vaults.
Par at Fighting Joe is 72.
Fighting Joe plays 8,092 yards from the back tees on Course Vaults.
The slope rating at Fighting Joe is 138.