Here’s a news flash: It’s emerged and the price is definitely right. Added to the tantalizing price of golfing are some beautiful casinos. It just adds more sizzle.
The much-anticipated Fallen Oak and Preserve Golf Clubs have opened for business in Biloxi, both already touted as masterpieces. But we’d expect nothing less from
Tom Fazio (Fallen Oak) and
Jerry Pate (Preserve), the legendary architects who designed the courses.
Adding two great new courses to the Mississippi lineup, though, is like adding a couple of new paintings to the Louvre. Which, when combined with the value-priced golf packages offered here, paints a rosy picture for golfers.
Mississippi golf packages start at $80 a day. For that, you get golf, cart, accommodation and breakfast. “Golf is such a part of Mississippi now,” says Gary Benson of the Isle of Capri Casino, one of the state’s many gaming establishments who offer golfers stay-and-play packages on courses like the previously mentioned newcomers, along with oldies, but goodies like
Jack Nicklaus Grand Bear, Shell Landing (the wonderful
Davis Love Signature Course), The Oaks (a former stop on the BUY.com tour) and the recently reopened Bridges, an
Arnold Palmer Signature
Course.
Benson’s property is
offering packages on
premium courses, starting
at $119 US a day. And the
deal includes a number of
vouchers, worth $10 each,
that can be applied to
food and gaming tables.
The engaging Benson says
golf and gaming are a
natural fit, allowing golfers
to play during the day and
play at night.
The Isles of Capri does
not have a course on site, but has working arrangements with 14 in the area.
Most of the casinos, especially well-known ones like the Grand Casino and the beautiful Beau Rivage have reopened after Katrina and there are more than 10,000 rooms now available for golfers and gamblers. Within the next couple of years as many as 30,000 rooms will be open.
The glittering array of golf options is as mind-bogging as the glamorous casinos. Take Love’s Shell Landing, for instance. Pardon the pun, but it will be Love at first sight when you cast your eyes on this beauty. The 7,000-yard Signature Course is defined by tall pines, bayous and rolling landscape, the course, which opened in 2000, made
Golf Digest’s list of best new courses in 2002.
Courses like Love’s are hard acts to follow, but Fazio and Pate showed they were up to the challenge, with Fallen Oaks and Preserve living testaments to their genius.
Fallen Oak, 20 minutes north of the fabulous Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, is a beauty, characterized by lush rolling landscape, pine ridges, magnolia and pecan groves, large lakes and winding streams. Fallen Oak measures a muscular PGA Tour-calibre 7,480 yards from the tips, featuring 10 bridges and concealed cart paths to protect the natural highlights of the terrain.
The Preserve is an upscale, core golf course.
A par-71 championship layout, it offers
superior service, unprecedented course
conditions and five sets of tees, measuring
6,774 yards from the back. Golfers who enjoy
the Preserve should consider a stay-and-play
package with the Palace Casino Resort,
a AAA
Four Diamond award property affiliated with
the course.
The Nicklaus designed Grand Bear, part of
Biloxi’s Grand Casino complex, is highlighted
by towering pines, cypress wetlands, secluded
fairways and impeccable greens.
The beauty
of playing in Mississippi is that quality golf is
a given everywhere.
Just like Biloxi, Tunica is
golf and gaming
with every casino in the
United States’ third-largest gambling city
offering stay-and-play packages at some
amazing courses River Bend, Cottonwoods
and Tunica National.
The 6,923-yard River
Bend is the county’s
most unique golf
experience. Architect
Clyde
Johnston did his
best to create a
pseudo-links
course,
complete with 144 pot
bunkers, nine
lakes
and fairway mounding.
Tunica National is a
Mark McCumber
design,
with 7,210 yards
of
rolling landscapes, generous landing areas, plenty of water hazards and strategically placed bunkers highlighting this state-of-the-art facility. Five tee settings make this course playable for all levels and the golf-cart GPS system is a luxury you’ll enjoy.
Another fine grouping of Mississippi courses can be found 20 minutes east of Tunica in DeSoto County, a suburb of Memphis, straddling the Tennessee border. DeSoto offers such fine courses as The Club at North Creak, Cherokee Valley and the Plantation. The courses in this area offer great value, with the cost of golfing averaging around $35.
When it comes to golf, Ole Miss just keeps getting better with age.
For more information on golf in Mississippi, visit
www.visitmississippi.org or if you would like a Mississippi Golf Guide sent to you, call
1 888 669 7662 or email your request with your name and contact info to
cdnmstourism@rogers.com
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Marc Atchison is the former Travel and Golf Editor of Canada’s largest daily newspaper The Toronto Star. More of Marc’s stories are also available on www.tnnworld.com.
