Great food, good times and fun golf make any Louisiana trip special

HITTING THE LOUISIANA GOLF TRAIL

TIME TO RELOAD YOUR BAYOU STATE GOLF PLATE

by vic williams

As another heartland summer slides toward autumn, it’s high time to fall in love with Louisiana golf again.

And if you’ve somehow never had the pleasure of following up a round on the Bayou with the best food in America, tossing in some sweet-sounding jazz, Cajun or Zydeco music and washing it all down with a local craft brew or cocktail, your neighbors to the southeast have a deal for you.

What used to be known specifically as the Audubon Golf Trail — named after the self-taught ornithologist whose love for and drawings of America’s birds led to a lasting naturalist movement — has deepened and broadened into a “Louisiana Golf Trails” buffet of experiences that, quite frankly, can’t be found anywhere else.

These trails keeps Louisiana’s original 17 Audubon courses throughout the state in play along with many others. Plug in whatever theme appeals at the moment — food, craft beer, distilleries, music, gaming, fishing, or a spicy gumbo of all those ingredients — and build an adventure of just the right flavor, timbre, region, lodging taste, or budget.

It all must and should start in New Orleans. Take a full day and drive there or hop a quick 90-minute flight to its shiny new Louis Armstrong International Airport. Within minutes you can be on the tee box or strolling the narrow, raucous French Quarter boulevards, or getting in “golf shape” with a Sazerac in one hand and a po’ boy in the other.

Within an easy drive of the city’s compact core are three must-plays, starting with Bayou Oaks at City Park’s South Course, which reopened in 2017 with a new routing, bunkers and greens. Fairways are generous and beautifully framed with old-growth oaks, and as with most Louisiana layouts, water comes into play often. The course is an across-the-board favorite, welcoming everyone from weekend hackers to celebrities such as Super Bowl-winning coach Sean Payton, and anchors the nation’s largest city park alongside an arts museum and children’s museum. A shorter North Course The Freench Quarter, a good place to start your journey. reopened in 2008 after Katrina laid it low for a few years. On the south side of town, near Tulane University, is the only course in America where you can take a streetcar to the first tee. The par-62 Golf Course at Audubon Park crams a lot of action into 4,200 yards and, as with a well-known “old” Scotland muni, you’ll see a few folks just out for a walk, sans clubs. Finally we’ve got TPC Louisiana — just a few minutes’ drive from downtown, and

The 18th hole at the TPC Lousiana, host to the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic

host to the annual Zurich Classic PGA Tour showcase. Pete Dye outdid himself here, creating a stirring and scenic test out of flat, swampy land.

The Dye touches are in full evidence. You’ve got the tiny bunkers, the tricky mounding, the sweeping and nottoo-large greens, the surprising shot angles. The routing lulls you into a “let’s rack up the birdies” mindset over the opening holes before ratcheting up the challenge, however quietly, hole by hole until you realize that a few bogeys were in the cards all along.

Holes 17 and 18 are a stirring final pair – a classic green-on-a-cliff, par-3 with railroad tie buttresses and water up the left side; and a par 5-finisher with stick-shaped bunkers separating grass from water on the right and a well-bunkered layup zone left.

TPC’s clubhouse is spacious but not overwrought. There’s a big grillroom and great views of the course, especially the lovely par-3 No. 9.

Where to stay during your Big Easy foray? How about French Quarter favorites such as Hotel Monteleone with its famed Carousel Bar, or perhaps a Canal Street or financial district high-rise or a funky spot down in the Lower Garden District? If you want to sleep in the shadow of towering American history, how about the Higgins Hotel? It’s the official National WWII Museum lodging partner, walking distance from the Caesars Super Dome, the Quarter and waterfront and an easy drive from the courses mentioned above.

The food at Higgins is first-rate — Café Normandie’s on the ground floor for a meal bordering on truly upscale, and Rosie’s on the Roof on the top floor for casual bites and sips on the patio. Louisiana sunsets are free.

The WWII Museum itself has since grown into one of the most impressive, well-curated and designed historic showcases – or museums of any kind – in the United States. Every exhibit elicits emotions that you didn’t realize you had. Its latest addition is “Beyond All Boundaries,” a 45-minute “4D” movie experience narrated by Tom Hanks, and construction is underway on a new “Peace Pavilion” and an exhibit dedicated to the Holocaust.

If you’ve included spirits — the drinkable kind — in your Trail plan, hit the Sazerac House Museum on Canal Street, a free

showcase for the city’s fascinating cocktail culture from the old rum distillery days, through the speakeasies of Prohibition, to today’s craft cocktail renaissance. There’s a working distillery onsite, stations for sampling famed cocktails such as the rye-based Sazerac and bourbon-based Teresa, virtual bartenders and a retail area selling every brand of spirits in the house. And don’t forget that New Orleans offers several craft breweries, too, as do several other The Sazerac distillery, a fascinating stop in New Orleans Louisiana towns. About an hour up I-10 from New Orleans is Baton Rouge, the nation’s tallest state capitol building, more fine food and music venues and another bunch of solid courses, with well-known Abita Brewing Co. in nearby Hammond. Then head west into Cajun Country for more of the state’s distinctive cuisine and music, with golf at popular courses such as The Wetlands. At Don’s Custom Meats in Scott you can sup on boudin (pork sausage with rice and spices), cracklins (deep-fried pork or chicken skins), spicy fried chicken or pork chops or a locally sourced burger. From there it’s south to Lake Charles and its several Trail-tested tracks plus two outstanding layouts right next to each other — Contraband Bayou at L’Auberge Casino Resort and the Golden Nugget’s beautifully maintained design. Not far north from there, in what the locals still dub “No Man’s Land,” is Allen Parish (check out the fun visitors

The 14th hole at Bayou Oaks in the heart of New Orleans

center) and the town of Kinder – home to Koasati Pines, the longest course in the state and a fine addition to the Coushatta Tribe’s impressive two-hotel-and-casino complex next door.

Koasati Pines makes the most of its flat site with a routing that winds around copious ponds, through stands of tall trees and across streams that come into play in unique ways. The opening par-5 is a mystery wrapped in an enigma with a half-hidden green. Then come more visual and strategic challenges including a strong par-5 finisher – a split-fairway affair with, again, lots of water and several approach options.

Team a round at Koasati Pines with a stay in either of Coushatta’s two luxury towers, save a few bucks for a stint on a poker, blackjack or craps table, pass the time on a bank of slots with a local brew in hand and top it off with a meal in one of the property’s eateries (the clubhouse grill serves a mean burger and winning wings, as well).

The tribal golf streak continues at Paragon Casino Resort in the Central Louisiana town of Marksville, whose on-property course, Tamahka Trails, earned top marks for a 2020 renovation of the original Steve Smyers design to better fit the flowing, lighton-the-gentle-rolling-land design. A few tee shots are semi-blind, fairways are wide but pinched in the right places and greens offer subtle, challenging breaks. Tough enough to host a U.S. Open qualifier, Tamahka is flatout fun from the proper tees.

Love to drop a line for bass or crappie while dropping putts for birdie? Louisiana offers award-winning waters like 75-milelong Toledo Bend Reservoir on the Texas border. Slate a visit for late 2022 or early

2023, when Cypress Bend Resort – located at about the lake’s halfway point near the town of Many – reopens its “new” golf course, which already boasted the state’s hilliest layout and some of its best views. The plan calls for six all-new holes while others will get new greens, improved driving lanes, better drainage and bunkering, new cart paths and other upgrades. The resort itself is a solid Best Western showcase, with rooms overlooking the course and lake, Take time to see the National World War II Museum. a pool, hiking trails and, you guessed it, great food. Sense a theme here? Actually we’ve just sampled a few tasty notes of what’s in store along all Louisiana Golf Trails. It’ll take several trips to compose the entire jazzy, jumping tune in your par-seeking heart and fun-seeking soul — while adding your own voice, palate and swing to the final yet ever-changing mix. For sample itineraries, visit www.louisianagolftrails.com Vic Williams is former editor and publisher of Fairways & Greens, Golf Getaways and Golf Tips magazines. He lives in Reno, Nevada.

The Koasati Pines course at the Coushatta Casino Resort in Kinder.