Albertville Golf & Country Club

Designed by Leon Howard and opened in 1966, Albertville Golf & Country Club presents an 18-hole, par-72 layout stretching 6,280 yards through the rolling terrain of Marshall County. The private course weaves through mature hardwoods and features well-contoured greens typical of Howard's Alabama designs from that era.

Albertville Golf and Country Club opened its first nine holes in 1954, with the second nine following in 1966, completing the 18-hole layout that serves as the private golf anchor for this Marshall County community in the Appalachian foothills of northeastern Alabama. Both nines were designed by architect Leon Howard, who built a career designing golf courses across the southern United States, with the majority of his courses concentrated in Texas and Alabama. Howard was born in Graham, Texas in 1928 and died on December 8, 2014. At Albertville, Howard created a layout that works with the gently rolling, hilly terrain of Sand Mountain and Marshall County, incorporating tree-lined fairways and natural topography that give the course visual character appropriate to its foothills setting.

The course plays to a par of 72 from approximately 6,280 yards at the tips, with four sets of tee boxes making it accessible to golfers of varying skill levels. The hilly character of the site provides elevation changes and sightlines that distinguish the course from the flatter layouts found in the Gulf Coast and Black Belt regions of Alabama. Albertville is the commercial hub of Marshall County, home to approximately 22,000 residents. The city developed significant manufacturing and retail sectors during the postwar decades, and growth in the local business community drove demand for a private club where professionals and families could gather for golf and social activities.

The first nine holes opened in 1954 served that demand initially, with the expanded 18-hole layout completed in 1966 providing a full championship test. The course is also known as Big Spring Lake Golf Club, reflecting a later transition in management and public access. This dual identity traces the club's evolution from a private institution serving the Albertville business community to a facility that has opened its doors more broadly over the decades. References to Big Spring Lake connect the course geographically to the Big Springs Road corridor of Marshall County.

Over its seven decades of operation, the course has served multiple generations of local families in one of Alabama's more scenic regions, with the foothills terrain and mature tree cover providing a natural backdrop that sets northeastern Alabama apart from the rest of the state's golf landscape. Leon Howard's design, now more than seventy years old in its first-nine configuration, remains the primary golf institution of the Albertville area.