Michigan Golf Journal October

Beau Rivage recently completed $100 million in property enhancements including a $55 million remodeling of each of its 1,645 hotel rooms. The resort offers live entertainment in its 1,550-seat theater, an upscale shopping promenade with 12 retail shops, the Black Clover Lounge and Topgolf Swing Suite and a world-class spa. It also has 12 restaurants in addition to an 85,000 -square foot gaming area. Fallen Oak opened in 2006 and is consistently ranked as the No. 2 casino course in the United States, trailing only Shadow Creek, its MGM sister course in Las Vegas. Because only Beau Rivage members and resort guests can play Fallen Oak the course is the bestconditioned of the layouts our group played. Shell Landing Shell Landing is a heavilyplayed public course in Gautier and gives Coastal Mississippi a third course in the state’s top 10. Shell Landing, designed by Davis Love III, was immediately well-received by national golf publications when it opened in 2002. In addition to its popular 18-hole championship course, Shell Landing also has a 15-acre practice facility. Pearl River Resort The Pearl River Resort sits in the middle of the state and is operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Dancing Rabbit opened in 1997 and has two 18-hole courses, The Azaleas and The Oaks. Both were designed by Tom Fazio in conjunction with Jerry Pate and both feature elevation changes and tighter fairways than we found at the Coastal courses. With more than 6,000 employees, the Choctaw Tribe is one of the top five private Grand Bear, a Jack Nicklaus design stepped in to host the Champions Tour in 2022, when Fallen Oak had to decline. Grand Bear is a public course, which opened in 1999. We considered it to be fantastic and on par with Fallen Oak. Nicklaus courses are generally very demanding and this one is literally “a Bear” from each tee placement. The front tees are called Teddy Bear, progressing to the Black Bear, the Brown Bear, the Golden Bear and the Grizzly Bear tees are for the low handicappers.

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