Here we go again: (from left) Mike Bassett, Pete Gunter, JJ Marshall, Craig Ebarb about to tee off at Ross Bridge in Hoover, Ala.

It’s a long story as to how all of this got started, but to paraphrase George Costanza, welcome to the Summer of John #6. Having a “real” job in the education business, it affords me the time to basically do whatever I want for summer months, up to but not including a large block of cheese the size of a car battery (only Seinfeld-ers will know that reference.)

Anyway, a big part of SOJ is the annual trip to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. (Let me stop right here and let you know this will not be a daily dissertation about what club I hit into the 14th green or how I could have shot 75 without all those three putts.)

This annual trip is all about male bonding with a side order of golf. (This year, it is seven rounds in five days; one year we did 11 rounds in seven days.) We’ve done this so much that we have played all of the courses on the Trail and will soon be eligible to vote in elections in Alabama.

We leave a Bossier City driveway at 6 a.m. and are on an Alabama tee box by 2 p.m. It’s always four of us in one vehicle — with assigned seating (I’m always back seat, left side) — and as we make our way down Interstate 20, it basically becomes a college dorm room. There is the usual talk about things I can’t mention as well as usual talk about things I know nothing about and the other three know everything about. This year’s drive was particularly clueless for me as there was some kind of discussion and which new truck had a Hemi or a powerstroke or something else I couldn’t understand. When the conversation turns to hunting, I reach for the headphones. They usually only bother me if they need to know something about the Angels’ pitching staff.

In the previous five editions, we have opened the trip with the traditional tee shot on the #1 hole at The Judge in Prattville — it’s the hole you see on EVERY television ad for the Trail — but we changed things and started at Ross Bridge (in Hoover) instead. It is the newest of the courses and is considered the showcase of the Trail.

It’s also a ridiculous 8,100 yards from the back tees, which we need binoculars to see after we moved up to a pedestrian 6,800 yards. Everything about Ross Bridge is oversized but well worth the somewhat expensive price tag.

It was a great opening day for this year’s trip. Everyone played well and the winning team netted $1 (after rallying from $8 down after the first seven holes). When it was over, the bagpipe guy was doing the nightly medley right by the 9th green. Kinda cool. (video below)

Friday, it’s 36 holes at Oxmoor Valley, which is just down the street from Ross Bridge. Another day, another tee box!