After a particularly bad day of golf, you know the kind - where every drive settles in a clump of trees and putts slide tantalizingly past the edge of the hole - the 19th hole is a great place to sing the blues. And if you're going to sing the blues, well, you might as well check out the Mississippi Blues Trail.

It's not just that the Mississippi Blues Commission has identified more than 130 musicians and sites to be honoured along the trail. And it's not just the lore and legends - with the trail spanning from northern Mississippi in the Delta Region at the gateway of Hwy 61, where blues pioneer Robert Johnson made his deal with the devil at the crossroads - to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
It's the total package that a visit to Mississippi can bring. Everything from the gulf coast beaches and casinos to more casinos and the birthplace of Elvis Presley inland to some splendid world-class golf courses.

There are plenty of options when you plan a vacation to Mississippi. "When people are picking a place to vacation, when they're looking for a place with more than one thing to do, we offer that," said Claire Pittman, Public Relations Manager for the Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We do visitor surveys and 59% of the people asked said their primary reason for visiting was gaming. When they get here, they wind up staying longer than they had intended. There's just so much to do here. The reason we're tying golf into this is that people forget Mississippi has the climate where you can play golf year round. The gaming here is 24/7. You can golf in the day. And at night, you can experience some of the best blues in the world. It's not just the great blues history, it's not just the great casinos and it's not just the golf. There's just so much to do."

Okay, since we're golfers, let's talk about the lush green fairways that are open to locals and tourists year round. Grenada, which honoured bluesman Magic Sam recently, is home to The Dogwoods Golf Course at Hugh White State Park. The new Gary Baird design is getting rave reviews and has unbelievably low green fees ($39 with cart, $29 for seniors 60-and-over). The course sits in the middle of unspoiled natural hilly terrain, flora, fauna and wildlife. What a way to start!

There's West Point, where Old Waverly Golf Club is found. Old Waverly (designed by Bob Cupp and Jerry Pate) has been a member of Golf Digest's elite America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses and hosted the 1999 U.S. Women's Open. The private club offers stay-play-and-dine privileges to visitors who stay in one of the on-course villas or condo units.

A visit to the Trail sites for Son House in Tunica and Willie Dixon in Vicksburg are located near several casinos and resorts with affiliated golf courses. Check out Cottonwoods (a Hale Irwin design, affiliated with the Grand Casino Tunica), the Mark McCumber-designed Tunica National Golf and Tennis Club and Riverbend Links, adjacent to half a dozen Vegas-style casinos in Tunica.

The five Mississippi golf courses cited for excellence in Golf Digest's Top 40 Casino Courses are all located near Mississippi Blues Trail sites: Grand Bear (Jack Nicklaus-designed amenity of Harrah's Grand Casino Biloxi), Dancing Rabbit Azaleas (Tom Fazio-Jerry Pate design at the Pearl River Resort in Philadelphia), Dancing Rabbit Oaks Course (Fazio-Pate, at Pearl River Resort; The Bridges at Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis (the state's only Arnold Palmer design) and Links at Cottonwoods.

If you happen to be in the Tunica area and want to check out some wonderful blues music, travel 45 minutes outside of the resort area to Clarksdale, where juke joints like Cathead Delta Blues and the Ground Zero Blues Club, partly owned by Morgan Freeman, will leave you with lifelong memories.

Check out www.msbluestrail.org for more info on the Mississippi Blues Trail.
For more golf info, check out www.visitmississippi.org/golf/.

BOTTOM LEFT: Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point
BOTTOM RIGHT: Dogwoods Golf Course at Hugh White State Park.