Golfers who visit the Alabama Gulf Coast are lucky to visit an area that features nearly a dozen pretty dang good courses both in the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area, as well as just over into the Florida Panhandle.

But inevitably when people come to golf from out of town, two courses come to the top of the list of recommendations, Kiva Dunes or Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club. And with good reason, they are the two premier courses in the area, absolutely in the best shape, some of the more unique designs that you will encounter in the region, while also being entirely playable for almost any handicap. Not to mention, for beach/vacation golf the prices aren’t outrageous either, with either course coming in the neighborhood of $150 a round or less, depending on time of day, time of year that you visit. If these same two courses were in other states or regions, you could easily tack another $50+ onto each tee time and it wouldn’t be out of line for the caliber of course that each presents.

And in case you’re wondering just how close the courses are on terms of which people prefer, on The Grint, the two courses are separated by 0.1 points on the course ratings system from users, 90.8 to 90.7 with Peninsula getting the slimmest of edges according to the golfers using that particular app.

But if you only had time to play one, which would be my pick? Frankly, it’s a pretty easy pick for one reason.

Let’s start where each course stands out: Peninsula Golf and Racquet Club might be in the best shape of any course in Alabama, public or private. And for a public course to be in the shape this course is in from tee to green, in a tourist area, it’s nothing short of remarkable. Seriously, my round on the Cypress/Lakes nines (there’s three nines, did not get to play the Marsh), there was barely a blade out of place in the fairways and greens save for people who didn’t take the time to repair the divots and pitch marks. If you are wanting to play a pristine course, this is the place to go in the Gulf Region of Alabama. The greens rolled true, the everything was perfectly green. When you take pictures of a golf course because it’s in great shape and green, Peninsula could be the post child for that type of photo.

Kiva Dunes is not that way. But. It’s not supposed to be. It’s a beach-links golf course that looks like Jerry Pate and company took 18 tees, fairways, and greens, and lowered them from the sky on top of a beach/nature preserve, and then maneuvered them around the natural areas, creeks, ponds, native grasses, and other hazards that you encounter during the round. It’s not meant to look pristine and perfect with no blade of grass out of place or un-cut. It’s meant to look a smidge rough, and meant to look natural, as if a golf course just happened to pop up out there, and they absolutely nail it. That’s not to say the tees, greens, and fairways aren’t in great shape, they absolutely are. But you don’t go to Kiva expecting it to look perfectly manicured like a course you see on TV every week. Plus, if you ever wanted to see how your game stacked up to potential pros, Kiva Dunes was a longtime PGA Tour Q School site, so you know it has some chops.

And that is the main reason why if you gave me one course to play down there, or if someone was asking for a recommendation on which premium course to play down in the Alabama Gulf Region, why I would tell them to go play Kiva Dunes first. Kiva Dunes is unlike any other course in Alabama.

The routing, the style, its location, just all of it is unlike anything in Alabama, and more reminiscent of courses you would see overseas, or maybe on the coasts in Oregon, Wisconsin or Michigan. Couple in that the course is wide open, not in the sense that you can hit the ball anywhere, but that the entire course is visible from the first tee, or the 18th green, or the clubhouse, and it makes for some of the most unique views I’ve ever seen, and allows for incredible visuals, like a storm rolling into the background in the photo above. It also allows more wind to get into the course, and REALLY make it play like a true links course, with no two rounds, or sometimes holes, playing the same. Sure, there’s houses on a couple holes along the boundaries, but not enough that it distracts you from the land around you. Peninsula, at parts it felt like a housing development that also happened to have a golf course.

This will sound like a knock on Peninsula, and I don’t intend it to be, but if you blindfolded me, dropped me on the third hole of any of the courses at Peninsula and you told me I was playing at Robert Trent Jones Trail – The Gulf, it would not surprise me or shock me. Again, that’s not a knock, The Trail and other golf courses that are in great shape is a great thing, but if there is one negative I would say about Peninsula, it is that I struggled to find or think of what would be a signature hole, or signature style in the two nines I played. Cypress in particular was rather mundane, to the point where I still can’t remember the ninth hole on it, and I played it less than a week ago. The Lakes had more moments, with the Par 3 eighth hole (pictured in the header image) on that set probably the most standout hole of my time there, and a giant Cypress tree that guarded a pond on the left of Hole 2 being more memorable holes.

And if you want me to get REALLY nitpicky about the Kiva vs. Peninsula debate, I was a little miffed that Peninsula dinged you for range balls on a round that was $120 for twilight rate. By far the most expensive course I’ve ever played that hit you up for range balls, which were included at Kiva.

So really, what it boils down to is what you prefer. If you want to play a pristine golf course where everything is in order and you get the country club experience on three very nice nines, you absolutely cannot go wrong with a trip to Peninsula. But if you prefer your courses to have some character, or be more unique both in style and layout, then the absolute no brainer is Kiva Dunes.

Personally, I would be picking Kiva Dunes every time.