By Len Ziehm
With cooler temperatures beginning to creep into our area, golfers in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana may want to consider heading south to Mississippi for great golf and amenities.
Top-notch golf is spread across the state from the Gulf Coast’s No 1 rated Fallen Oak, No. 6 Grand Bear and No. 10 Shell Landing. No. 2 Mossy Oak and No. 3 Old Waverly are located in the northeastern section of the state, near Starkville. While The Azalea, No. 5 and The Oaks Course, No. 8 are at Dancing Rabbit in the middle of Mississippi.
Fallen Oak & The Beau Rivage
Beau Rivage sits on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast and the 32-story hotel and casino is Mississippi’s tallest building. It offers spectacular views of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Biloxi’s Back Bay. Tom Fazio’s Fallen Oak has long been the consensus No. 1 among the state’s courses and has hosted a PGA Tour Champions tournament since 2010. Tom Fazio is known as a top designer and Fallen Oak is considered one of his best creations.
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 best-conditioned of the layouts our group played.
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.
Shell Landing
Shell Landing is a heavily-played 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 employers in Mississippi and the Pearl River Resort is one of its biggest properties. It encompasses two hotels and casinos, the Silver Star and Golden Moon.
The Silver Star has a spa and salon where guests can enjoy a full complement of skin and body treatments, soothing steam baths, a whirlpool, sauna and outdoor pool. Its fitness center is filled with state-of-the-art equipment.
Golden Moon is a bit different with its amenities including, The Whiskey Bean (for coffee, sandwiches and pastries), Bistro 24 (for a broader menu that includes mouth-watering steak), Timeout Lounge (for easy TV viewing while enjoying a variety of drink selections) and the excellent restaurant, Mama `n’ Em, with particularly interesting menu offerings.
Visitors will find it difficult to find a better meal and service than that of Phillip M’s Steakhouse at Pearl River.
Old Waverly Country Club
West Point has been a golf hotbed since George Bryan’s Old Waverly Country Club opened in 1988.
The club hosted the 1999 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2014 Handa Cup, a team event for senior women stars and the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Local residents, Bryan and Toxie Haas, rallied a few friends to add a second course, Mossy Oak. It’s a sporty but challenging layout that also is the home of the Mississippi State University men’s and women’s golf teams.
“Our whole goal with that course was to develop a different atmosphere,’’ said Greg Flannagan, the director of golf who is in his 23rd year at Old Waverly. “We didn’t want golfers to get bored with the stay-and-play option.’’
Old Waverly is private, but it can be played by those staying at either the Mossy Oak Cottages, or Old Waverly’s lodging. Mossy Oak is comparatively new and is officially public, but most of its play comes from stay-and-play packages.
Mississippi State University hosts an annual men’s collegiate tournament at Mossy Oak, while the women’s team conducts its tournament on Old Waverly. Both courses have accompanying cottages that make for most pleasant stay-and-play visits.
To learn more about the great resorts and courses in Mississippi visit: VisitMississippi.org/golf.
