If you're hitting the tables in Biloxi or just sunning yourself on the Gulf, save time to play The Preserve Golf Club. Located in a gorgeous nature preserve, the scenery here is allowed to dictate the drama, Chris Baldwin writes. Designer Jerry Pate didn't obsessively try to put his imprint on the land as much as he allowed the surroundings to star.
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The Bridges Golf Club delivers plenty of fun to go with that sure ball battering. This is one of the most entertaining golf courses you'll find anywhere, and it fits right into a Mississippi Gulf Coast region that really lets its courses play out over nature.
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At Shell Landing Golf Club, Davis Love III gives recreational golfers wide, wide fairways, the better to keep those drives in play and the frustration level down. But that only makes Shell Landing's 7,024 yards look even more massive. There's so much room, it can be a little intimidating.
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Grand Bear in Saucier, Miss., is the rare golf course that could be both a great starter or a great finisher for a golf trip. Play Grand Bear as your first course on a Mississippi Gulf Coast trip, and you'll receive a thorough introduction to the reasonably-priced nature wows of this region - without getting too beat up. On the other hand, you could also play Grand Bear as the climax of the trip and nobody would walk off feeling shortchanged.
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Sometimes natural disasters bring unnatural luck. Much of the Mississippi coast was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, and the area's golf courses obviously suffered. But one of them, Sunkist Country Club, actually prospered.
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Grand Bear is one of Biloxi's star attractions. It may not have the novelty of the Mississippi Gulf Coast's two, glitzy new openings, Fallen Oak and The Preserve, or the history of Great Southern. But this will always be a favorite of those who travel and play golf regularly in Biloxi.
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There are those who claim that many of the Biloxi-area courses are in better shape than before Hurricane Katrina hit, and the The Oaks Golf Club in Pass Christian can definitely make that claim.
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It's hard to dislike a golf course that sports a sign saying: "Slow — gopher tortoise refuge." How can you go slower than a gopher tortoise? What's their top speed — faster than a glacier but slower than a three-toed sloth? They don't make carts that slow. Even without the sign, Shell Landing is an easy course to like, even love. The Davis Love III design one of the top-tier courses in the Biloxi area.
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Opened in 1986, the semi-private Windance Country Club is a Mark McCumber design that has some length and enough bite to it to keep it interesting. Windance is 6,660 yards from the back tees, with a slope rating of 129. What gives the course most of its bite is its tight, tree-lined fairways, and water hazards that come into play if you and your driver aren't on speaking terms.
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Fallen Oak is the newest golf course in the Biloxi area, and it's a humdinger — a spectacular course by a "A-list" architect, Tom Fazio. It's financed by MGM Mirage and only guests of the Beau Rivage Casino are invited to share the glory. No photos are allowed. They're a little anal about this sort of thing, but they have the course to back it up.
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