Steelwood Country Club vs. Craft Farms Golf Club

Steelwood is private and member-owned, with named Golf, Social, and Fishing membership categories and a genuine, though unconfirmed-as-mandatory, connection between property ownership and club access. Craft Farms golf is open to the public on a daily-fee basis ($85-$110 green fees), with a resident-specific Social Membership tier that lets Craft Farms homeowners play for a flat $65 guest-style fee rather than full green fees -- a real but modest resident perk, not membership-included ownership.

Steelwood sits on 1,500+ private, gated acres built around a 200-acre stocked lake, with boating, hunting land, and a single 18-hole Jerry Pate course as the golf centerpiece. Craft Farms is a larger, ungated, mixed-use development -- described by regional real-estate sources as the largest subdivision in the Gulf Shores area -- with 36 holes across two Arnold Palmer courses (the only Palmer designs in Alabama) plus on-site retail and dining.

Both carry real design credentials: Steelwood's Jerry Pate design was rated Golf Digest's 5th-best new private course in the country on its 1997 opening, while Craft Farms' Cotton Creek and Cypress Bend courses are the only two Arnold Palmer designs anywhere in Alabama.