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FOR FUN GOLF AND GREAT FOOD BET ON LAKE CHARLES by ken mac leod
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kay, so maybe there are no true beaches or mountains or even a decent hill. Instead you have bayous inland and oil derricks out in the Gulf. But what the Lake Charles, La., area lacks in stunning beauty it more than makes up for in charm. That, plus the world’s best food, some pretty fine golf courses and the classy L’auberge Casino Resort and you have the makings of a fun and filling golf venture. The plush rooms and the new Barstool Sports Bar, in which you can place a bet on just about any sporting activity imaginable
without leaving your seat while watching a screen the size of a small apartment complex, together make for a great base of operations. The chef at Barstool, one Lyle Broussard, prepared a never-ending series of dishes the first night, each better than the next, until we were reeling. From there, we packed in four rounds of golf and gained at least four pounds thanks to all the Cajun delights. Day 1, we played the home course at L’auberge. The resort is huge, with a 70,000- square foot casino, 754 rooms and suites, numerous casual and fine dining options, a great looking pool and lazy river. Of course, we seldom left the sports bar.
The golf course, Contraband Bayou, is named for the large bayou that wraps around it and was designed by Tom Fazio. The course has taken some hits from a sequence of hurricanes and somehow many of the greens wound up partly Bermuda and partly Paspalum, an aggressive seashore grass that has taken over in large swathes. It was a good warm-up round but the course has little of Fazio’s normal pizazz. The golf ad-
The Golden Nugget, below, and Bayou Contraband at L'auberge Casino Resort makes a good home base duo.
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GOLF OKL AHOMA • JUNE/JULY 2022
W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG
