SOUTH

LOUISIANA LINKS LIFE

BY TONY DEAR

Blue bayous and Cajun culture make Pelican State golf red hot

Let’s just assume you want to visit Louisiana at some point in your life. Everybody does. You’ve heard so much about this fascinating place andare intrigued by what you might find.

A melting pot of French, Canadian, African and American backgrounds, the Pelican State, named ‘La Louisianne’ by a French explorer in honor of King Louis XIV in 1683, is known primarily for its Creole (West African, French, Spanish, Native American ancestry) and Cajun (descendants of Roman Catholic French Canadians) culture, its delicious food and distinctive music. But there’s so much more.

The land of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, an alligator population said to number in excess of two million, and a world-famous street festival whose name (Mardi Gras) means ‘Fat Tuesday’ to signify a day of consuming fatty foods before a period of fasting, is also home to very highly rated fishing both on the Gulf of Mexico and inland. There’s a sizable gaming industry, an impressive selection of craft breweries and, of course, the reason we’re all here — golf.

Though the state can’t boast a terribly high number of courses, there are more than enough good ones — like, nationally-ranked good – to satisfy the golf traveler looking to mix some quality links-time with the sort of activities golfers might not get at home.

Enjoying golf in Louisiana really isn’t hard to do. The average daytime temperature during the winter months hovers around the low-mid 60s. There’s none of the snow you see up north, and the number of days that are ‘predominantly sunny’ is well above the national average. “Last I checked you do not shovel sunshine in Louisiana,” jokes Mary Williams, coordinator of the state’s Audubon Golf Trail, a network of 16 courses chosen for their high level of design, maintenance and hospitality. “We’re usually playing 12 months out of the year.”

But you don’t have 12 months to enjoy Louisiana, obviously. Your time, much like that of any 21st Century human, is short. And because you’re not a travel expert or frequent visitor to this part of the country, you can’t be sure how you’re going to see and do everything you want to.

Which is why the clever people at the Louisiana Office of Tourism have put together a number of three-day, themed itineraries for golfers who want to play some great courses but don’t want to come all this way and spend the entire time playing golf but taking in as much of what Louisiana has to offer as possible in the short time they have.

There are four suggested trips for those looking to mix golf with some time at the gaming tables or slots. The first of them begins in the city of Lake Charles, three hours west of New Orleans but only two and a bit east of Houston, Texas.

Originally named Charleston, Lake Charles is a city of almost 80,000 people and was founded in 1861. Now a major industrial center an hour north of the Gulf of Mexico, it is home to a number of Petro-chemical companies and has become a popular gaming destination with four gaming options of which L’Auberge Casino Resort and the Golden Nugget are the largest.

Over the last decade or so, Lake Charles has also developed into a stand-alone golf destination whose list of venues includes Tom Fazio’s Contraband Bayou at L’Auberge Casino Resort, the National Golf Club of Louisiana, the newly built, municipal Mallard Golf Club and the excellent Rocky Roquemoredesigned Gray Plantation, which opened in 1999 and is one of eight Audubon Golf Trail courses that score a 95 percent or better approval rating on GolfPass.com.

Cypress Bend

Carter Plantation • Springfield, La.

Koassati Pines at Coushatta Casino • Kinder, La.

Cypress Bend • Many, La.

Ranked even higher in national publications, however, and considered by many as the state’s best course, is the Country Club at the Golden Nugget, designed by California’s Todd Eckenrode and venue for the Korn Ferry Tour’s inaugural Lake Charles Championship in March 2022. A firm, linksy layout, the course sits adjacent to the impressive Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, which opened on the Calcasieu River at the end of 2014. This hotel is a stunner with over 1,000 rooms.

Day two of the Lake Charles-Baton Rouge-New Orleans Golf and Gaming Itinerary takes you to the state’s capital and the Robert Trent Jones-designed Santa Maria Golf Club. With 18 lakes, the course offers plenty of opportunity for disaster, and yet it is another Louisiana favorite that scores incredibly high marks on GolfPass. Following a beverage in the Spanish-style clubhouse, head into Baton Rouge for dinner and games at one of the city’s casinos – L’Auberge, Hollywood or Belle of Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River.

On day three, it’s an hour’s drive southwest into the Crescent City where you tee it up at the historic Bayou Oaks South Course located inside the 1,300acre City Park. The course dates from 1902 and hosted the PGA Tour from 1938-62. It was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and reopened in 2017 following a $24 million rebuild (the project included a new clubhouse, dining room, pro shop and maintenance facility) by Rees Jones, who incorporated parts of the old East and West Courses into the new routing.

City Park Golf, which became Bayou Oaks in the 1990s, now features 36 holes with the North Course, originally opened in 1969 then renovated and reopened in 2009, sitting across Filmore St. from its much longer sibling.

In the afternoon, before you prepare for a night out in the French Quarter or elsewhere in the city, consider driving 25 minutes southwest for a round at TPC Louisiana, home of the state’s only PGA Tour event — the Zurich Classic.

A fledgling Tour first came to New Orleans in 1938, the tournament going through several guises before Zurich Insurance Group took over sponsorship, and moved the event to the newly opened TPC, in 2005. It was played at the Jack Nicklaus-designed English Turn for the 13th and last time in 2006 before was played exclusively at TPC Louisiana. In 2017, the Zurich Classic became a two-man team event, and this year the defending champions will be the Australian duo of Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith.

Dye’s layout is typically distinctive with a number of water features and Scottish-style pot bunkers. It closed for six months in 2019 for a renovation in which the existing turf was changed and the bunkers refreshed.

The three other golf/gaming tours take you to superb courses and fun-packed entertainment spots. Avid fishermen should try the Toledo Bend-Alexandria-Delhi Itinerary, which begins with a morning round at Dave Bennet’s excellent Cypress Bend Golf Course and is followed by an afternoon on 186,000acre Toledo Bend Lake that offers some of the finest bass fishing in the country. The next day takes you to Oakwing Golf Course and the reservoir at Poverty Point State Park in Delhi. Play Black Bear Golf Club the next morning.

There’s a popular golf/music circuit starting in New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz, and continuing to Baton Rouge and then Lafayette where you should enjoy an evening at the famous Blue Moon Saloon. There, besides jazz, you might encounter a little zydeco or even swamp pop.

The golf and craft beer trail includes some of the state’s finest breweries (as well as golf courses), while the two golf/culinary tours (New Orleans-Baton Rouge-Lake Charles, and NE Louisiana-Alexandria-Lafayette) will allow you to sample Louisiana favorites like gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee, shrimp, crab, crawfish, oysters, grouper, snapper, redfish, Boudin/Andouille sausage, muffulettas, po’boys and a good pecan pie or bread pudding.

Then there are four suggested, un-themed itineraries that include a lot of golf and other activities that take in many of Louisiana’s top attractions.

Themed or un-themed, whichever tour you choose, (you might even combine a couple), will give you an extraordinary trip you won’t soon forget. And when you find the time, you’ll be back for another.

You can follow these plans or make your own at louisianagolftrails.com and audubongolf.com.

Roll ‘Royally’

When golfing in New Orleans, drop you bag and pin at the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel

The historic Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, located at the fashionable intersection of St. Louis and Royal Streets in New Orleans’s storied French Quarter, has seen, enjoyed and survived its share of trials and adventures throughout its 180-year history. And, if you are looking for ‘Royal’ treatment in the heart of the Crescent City while playing Audubon Park GC, TPC of Louisiana, Bayou Oaks or legendary English Turn G & CC, this is the place to stay and play. Trust us. We at Destination Golfer set up camp here recently and this place etched indelible memories for us to relive.

The early/mid-1970s marked perhaps its most active period in mainstream culture as James Bond 007 stayed here while fleeing from corrupt Caribbean dictator and heroin-dealer Dr. Kananga during filming of ‘Live and Let Die’ in 1973 while, three years later, the hotel was the subject (and title) of a Led Zeppelin song in which lead singer Robert Plant poked fun at fellow band member John Paul Jones for accidently setting fire to his room.

The Royal, as locals refer to it, opened for business in 1843 when New Orleans was becoming one of the busiest and most important ports in the country. Five years earlier, entrepreneur James Hewlett had secured the land on which slaves had been bought and sold in the hope of building an elegant and respected hotel that would be welcome to all and which might hopefully transform the character, standing and prestige of the area if not the whole city.

A Creole, of Black and French ancestry, Hewlett hired architect Jacques Nicholas Bussiere De Poilly to recreate the atmosphere and sophistication of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Construction took five years owing to a terrible fire that destroyed De Poilly’s work when the building was almost half complete. Beginning again from scratch, Hewlett and De Poilly persevered eventually opening one of the city’s most magnificent buildings and naming it the St Louis Hotel.

Six hundred well-heeled guests attended the opening ceremony, ensuring a well-publicized event and helping the hotel to become a significant part of city life. Not surprisingly, it quickly became one of New Orleans’s most exclusive destinations and thrived for 15 years or so before the Civil War broke out and the Union sequestered it as a military hospital. The postwar period of reconstruction was a generally depressing period during which the hotel had many owners or lessees none of whom could make it work financially.

The St Louis completely lost its once enviable reputation and slowly moldered, eventually closing its doors in 1912. The hurricane that destroyed much of the building three years later rubbed salt into its seemingly untreatable wounds.

It wasn’t until another 30 years had elapsed that hopes of reviving the battered building, and possibly the rest of the French Quarter along with it, began to emerge. Edgar Stern, a successful businessman in a cotton brokerage, and his wife Edith, daughter of the President of Sears, Roebuck and Company, were major philanthropists who donated significant funds to the city which later repaid the couple awarding them its highest civic honor — the Times-Picayune Loving Cup.

It took the Sterns and their co-investors roughly 10 years to gather the necessary money and hire the expertise required to bring the hotel back to life. Architects Samuel Wilson Jr, known locally as the ‘Dean of Historic Preservation’ and Arthur Q. Davis whose firm had designed the Superdome, did a remarkable job recreating the hotel’s Renaissance Revival architecture, a style pioneered in France and Italy during the 18th century, and which invariably involves a focal point staircase emanating from a grand lobby with chandeliers, statues and arched windows and hallways. The new lobby also featured exact duplicates of the original Spanish wrought iron railings.

After reopening as the Royal Orleans in 1960, it quickly became one of the city’s most distinguished and eminent hotels again, welcoming guests such as Muhammad Ali, Charlton Heston, Louis Armstrong, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, former President Richard Nixon and even famous TV dog, Lassie.

The Sterns sold the hotel in 1980 and it was eventually taken over by Dallas hotel group Omni in 1986 which owns a 25 percent stake in the business and operates the hotel as the Omni Royal Orleans.

Today, there are 345 gracefully-appointed rooms — everything from Petite Rooms to corner suites with balconies overlooking St Louis and Royal Streets and three exquisite 1,000 square foot suites — the Pontchartrain, Royal and Penthouse — that feature art by local artists, French doors opening onto large balconies, wet bars, marble floors and space for entertaining anything from 25 to 50 guests.

The heated, salt-water rooftop pool and opulent Rib Room Restaurant, favorite haunt of literary greats and, says the hotel’s web site, the ‘politically infamous’, are two of the Royal’s most revered amenities while the concierge will help you find, taste and experience the best that the surrounding streets and neighborhoods have to offer, be it food, booze, music or entertainment.

The Royal sure has seen a thing or two in its time. Perhaps it’s time now for you to visit this member of the Historic Hotels of America organization, which identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of place, and architectural integrity, and add your own story.

So, as you can see, this hotel is a landmark — not just a destination for golfers and travelers. Visit OmniHotels.com to book your stay here or any of their locations across the map.

The Refuge Golf Course • Flowood, Miss.

MISSISSIPPI

BY BOB SHERWIN

The Refuge anchors The Magnolia State's bucket list courses with a new hotel and look

The Refuge Golf Course, smack in the middle of Mississippi in Flowood — just outside of Jackson — has a new look and a new attitude, one that folks here hope golfers see in a new light.

The Refuge underwent a near four-year renovation, finally re-opening this past spring. Welcoming the course back also is a brand new shiny $50 million Sheraton hotel that gives visitors the incentive, or at least now the option, to stay and play the course just a wedge away. “The hotel is the focal point. It catches your eye for sure,” said Blake Hatfield, The Refuge’s PGA professional. “This ties the whole thing together. We (Jackson) didn’t have a place like this. It’s certainly one of the things we can target, buddy trips for 12, 16 golfers, staying at the hotel and playing golf.”

The Refuge had a solid first run. Originally designed by the late Roy Case, it opened in 1998 and was immediately acclaimed as one of the top public courses in the state. The property is flush against 200 acres of wetlands. More than 500,000 cubic yards of dirt and sand was spread across the terrain to shape it and form various water hazards.

Then in July 2017, the course closed for a complete renovation. Nathan Crace of Watermark Golf oversaw the project and his team introduced three new holes, removed scores of trees, enhanced and enlarged the playing corridors, and improved the drainage, irrigation and bunkering systems.

“It’s a lot more playable now,” Hatfield said. A primary objective of the renovation was to bring the No. 9 hole back to the clubhouse. To do that, the architects initially converted No. 18 to No. 9 while redesigning two other holes to make room for new/improved holes. No. 2, now a 431-yard par-4, was lengthened another 50 yards with a new green set against a pond. No. 8 was converted from a par-4 to a 189-yard par-3, also with a new green and an adjacent pond.

Dancing Rabbit Golf Club • Philadelphia, Miss.

No. 18 is brand new, a 421-yard beauty that, like No. 9, returns to the clubhouse. Crace’s effort earned second-place honors for 2021 Renovation of the Year, by Golf Inc. magazine. By maintaining routing through the centuries-old oak trees and towered pines and not disturbing the surrounding fragile habitat, the renovation also earned an “Environmental Excellence Award” from Golf Digest.

The layout, with green fees as low as $65 on the weekends, now stretches to 7,013 yards from the back tees. A new golf shop, locker room and a water practice range were also part of the renovation. On the range, the grass extends out about 75 yards, where wedge balls fall. For the longer clubs, balls splash into a large pond with various colored fountains that are uniquely used as distance measures. “It’s a pretty cool look at night,” Hatfield said.

While the City of Flowood owns the property, Troon Golf took over in 2020 to manage it and it is adjacent to The Refuge Hotel & Conference Center. The 10-story resort hotel is a 196-room facility that features a spa, large pool, a lazy river, a 15-acre lake, a culinary school, and the popular Missy Sippy Roof Top Bar.

The hotel was developed independently from the course renovation, but it turns out to be fortuitous symmetry. The Refuge immediately gets in line as one of the state's golf destinations. “There’s nothing in this part of Mississippi like this. Anything similar is two, three hours away,” Hatfield added. The quality Gulf Shores courses are the closest comparisons, but they aren’t close, more than 150 miles south.

About an hour (70 miles) away is one of the state’s most popular golf spots, Dancing Rabbit Golf Club on the Choctaw Reservation near Philadelphia, Miss. Refuge would do well to replicate the Dancing Rabbit success story.

Poverty and unemployment haunted the Choctaw people until Phillip Martin was elected the tribal chief in 1979. He lured various manufacturers to the area and, ultimately, two casinos, the Silver Star Hotel and Casino and Golden Moon Hotel and Casino, part of the Pearl River Resort.

The area was transformed, as more than 7,000 people found employment and area wages soared $200 million a year. But Martin didn’t think it was enough for the area to sustain growth. So, he sought out one of the finest golf architects, Tom Fazio, to build a pair of courses to attract another wave of tourists.

Fazio, together with PGA Tour veteran Jerry Pate, designed a pair of elite 18-hole layouts under the Dancing Rabbit umbrella, The Azaleas, completed in 1997, and the Oaks, opened in 1999. The courses, set in one of the state’s most beautiful natural woodland settings, enjoyed immediate success and drew praise from golf publications across the state and nation.

Golf set the property on a better course, as it can for The Refuge. “The first few months we were extremely busy,” Hatfield said. “We got a great response from our market. People love the new layout. We’re getting people from all over, from California, from Canada. Without the hotel, this doesn’t happen.”

ALABAMA

BY TONY DEAR

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail impact resonates to each corner of The Yellowhammer State

It started with an inspired vision three decades ago and nearly 15 million golfers have attested that, all these years later, it was, indeed, a mighty fine idea.

That figure represents the number of folks from all 50 states and much of the world that have played a round on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail since it opened 1992. What began with four courses grew into a globally recognized 26-course trail, covering 468 holes at 11 locations and more than 300 miles of playable terrain. The number of birdies over that time is unknown, fixed merely in the memories of the millions who came to play deep in the Heart of Dixie.

For a brief Trail history, there are two people primarily responsible. One is Dr. David Bonner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA). In the late 1980s, he was looking for a way to diversify the state employees’ retirement fund as well as improve the state’s economic/tourism status. RSA initially invested $100 million to fund one of the largest golf projects anywhere in the U.S., setting the gold standard for any subsequent ‘Trail’ project around the country.

The other, of course, was Robert Trent Jones, Sr., an internationally renowned golf architect with more than 500 career course designs. He was so excited to be part of it that, even in his mid-80s, he threw himself tirelessly into the effort. It turned into the piece de resistance of his illustrious career (he died in 2000). SunBelt Golf Corporation followed Jones’ directions and designs with a massive land assault. At one point, the company put into use more than 700 earth-moving pieces of equipment around the various locations.

The RSA fund certainly has prospered from Dr. Bonner’s benefaction, exceeded only by the state’s economic benefits and (enduring) tourism flow. When the project started, Alabama’s tourism proceeds were a mere $3 billion annually. That figure has climbed to more than $13 billion today and the RTJ Trail — with more than a half million annual rounds — has had a significant impact on that tourism surge.

Initially, the project generated around 77,000 jobs, and currently more than 50,000 RTJ Trail-related Alabamans are gainfully employed. There have been more than 8,000 houses constructed around the golf properties along with the development of five million square feet of commercial space.

Alabama, a roughly rectangular shape with the jagged southern Gulf Coast, is not a small territory at 52,432 square miles. It is 330 miles long, north-to-south, and 150 miles wide. The RTJ Trail was well planned with courses strategically dotted and spaced at various locations for tourists/golfers to get a sampling of the terrain, culture and culinary tastes of the entire state.

Also was well planned were the accommodations, perhaps the most undervalued element of the Trail. There are plenty of hotels and suites to choose from, but the Trail has eight time-tested, golfer-pleasing resorts, not far from the various courses, that offer southern chic, charm and comfort.

Guests are never far from some BBQ ribs, grits, catfish and banana cream pie, but it’s the people that are perhaps the most treasured element who are endearing, helpful and hospitable.

Here are capsules for the 11 RTJ Trail locations, starting at the north end near the Tennessee border, with eight resort suggestions that get you as close to the clubhouses as possible (see rtjgolf.com to help any play-and-stay plans).

TRAIL TIPS

Florence

The Shoals has two long (8,000 yard) monsters — Fighting Joe and Schoolteacher, that both opened in the early 2000s.

HOTEL • Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa

Huntsville

Hampton Cove has a 54-hole complex with two 18-hole layouts — the Highlands and the River (with no bunkers and an abundance of water), plus a fun Par 3 course.

Anniston/Gadsden

Silver Lakes has three nine-hole courses with inventive names — Mindbreaker, Backbreaker and Heartbreaker.

Birmingham

At Oxmoor Valley, there are three choices — The Valley Course, the Ridge Course and another enjoyable Par 3.

Birmingham/Hoover

The lush Shannon Valley is the home of Ross Bridge, which features one of the longest golf courses in the world — 8,191 yards from the back tees.

HOTEL • Renaissance Birmingham Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa

Opelika

There are two 18-hole layouts at Grand National — Links and Lake, and an 18-hole Par 3 course where you can hone your wedge game.

HOTEL • Auburn Marriott Opelika Resort & Spa & Grand National

Prattville

Capitol Hill has three of the Trail’s most praised and popular courses — the challenging Judge Course with 14 holes adjoining the Alabama River; the Senator which annually hosts a LPGA Tour event.

HOTEL • Montgomery Marriott Prattville Hotel & Conference Center at Capitol Hill

Greenville

Cambrian Ridge has three nine-hole courses — Canyon, Sherling, and Loblolly, and also a fabulous Par 3 course. They are considered among the most scenic on the Trail.

Dothan

Highland Oaks has three nine-hole course — Highlands, Magnolia and Marchwood, and, guess what, a great Par 3 course.

Mobile

Magnolia Grove has two contrasting 18-hole beauties — Falls and Crossings that has hosted multiple LPGA Tour events.

HOTEL • The Battle House Renaissance Mobile Hotel & Spa

Point Clear

Venerable is a description that not only fits the two superb courses at the Lakewood Club — Dogwood and Azalea — which joined the Trail in 2005 and are situated along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay.

HOTEL • The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa, Autograph Collection Robert Trent Jones Golf Trial • Ross Bridge • Hoover, Ala.