New Orleans

Accommodations:

Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel

Location:

The golf courses of the New Orleans area are making their way back to their original beauty.  The total experience of it all is outstanding.  Come back to New Orleans and have a swinging good time.

English Turn Golf & Country Club                                                                                Experience the course that the PGA Tour professionals used to play during their stop in the Big Easy.  Only it isn't so easy.  Play this big boy from the back tees and the slope rating is a mere 141 and 7078 yards.  This Jack Nicklaus designed Par 72 Championship Golf Course presents a unique challenge to golfers of any skill level. Water comes into play on every hole. Giant sand and waste bunkers guard many holes, and numerous grass depressions and mounds line the sculptured fairways.  Huge tiered greens challenge putting strokes. Jack Nicklaus created eighteen unique, championship holes surrounded by an expansive waterway.  At English Turn each hole is different.   There was no architectural cookie cutter here, and no holes designed merely to divide residential areas. Each English Turn hole challenges you with its own personality. Golf Digest ranks this track the 5th Best Course in the State.   One of my favorites is hole #15, a 540-yard, par 5, requires an approach shot to an island green.  #18, a 471-yard, par 4 is ranked as one of the three hardest holes on the PGA Tour.

TPC of Louisiana                                                                                                            Situated on 250 acres across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, the TPC of Louisiana was designed by a man who knows how to turn a site with limited topography into a beautiful and compelling test of golf. Pete Dye, who created the flagship layout for the PGA TOUR, the TPC at Sawgrass, was called on again for another challenge. Dye worked in conjunction with Steve Elkington and Louisiana native Kelly Gibson, both TOUR players, to create a 7,300-yard, par-72 golf course that sits low on the property and utilizes natural vegetation, including numerous cypress trees. One of the most attractive features to the property is that it's self-contained, surrounded on three sides by drainage canals. Dye built relatively flat and small greens -- no more than 5,000 square feet. Because of the modest green complexes, the bunkers were set off from the putting surfaces with chipping areas between. "We don't want the bunkers right up against the greens," he says. "We want to have a different look, maybe a little optical illusion, and a different strategy to the holes."  In addition, Dye installed numerous waste bunkers. Some 20 acres of the 80-plus acres of playing area were covered in sand. The water hazards had to be created. Dye is pleased about a collection of short but challenging par-4 holes that complement some of the longer ones.  "We've got some pretty nice, short par 4s that are really going to be the heart of the golf course," he said. The Tournament Players Club of Louisiana has been named the No. 4 Upscale Public Golf Course in Golf Digest Magazine's annual listing of best new facilities in America.

Money Hill Golf & Country Club
This Ron Garl designed course is an hour away from New Orleans, but it is very worth the drive. The inland holes feature many elevated tees and greens with extra wide fairways on the longer holes. While thick trees may line the fairways, they are grassed out underneath, eliminating the need for a heavy rough. The final five holes are extremely dramatic offering every type of waterhole known to golf. All on the lake, they're situated so it comes into play with most shots. There's even a green in the lake. And, if you're wondering about the name, according to lore, it derives from a tradition that treasure is buried somewhere on the property, left behind by wealthy planters fleeing smugglers and pirates. The course is now private, but a few lucky souls get to enjoy it.  We can help.

Beau Chene Country Club                                                                                               Located 40 minutes from the French Quarter in Mandeville on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain.  These two challenging courses feature water, sand bunkers and mature pine trees and these elements are only a few of the obstacles found on the courses. Oak Course – Designed by Joe Lee in 1975, this challenging course is very scenic with numerous holes featuring water … and the wet stuff comes into play often.  Home to the Beau Chene Collegiate Classic, this track has had college boys crying their eyes out.  It only measures 6725 from the tips, but don’t let the length fool you; this is a shotmaker’s course.  Magnolia Course – Lee returned to Beau Chene in 1983 to create the Magnolia Course.  Once again, Lee didn’t need a lot of length to challenge the golfer.  This track only measures 6690 yards from the tips.  It is a little tamer than its sister course, but not by much.

Oak Harbor
This Lee Schmitt design is Pete Dye inspired.  The breathtaking 6896 yard layout is cut from some of the most undisturbed land in the Bayou region.  Golf   Digest ranked Oak Harbor as the third best public course to play in the state in 1996.   The course was built on hilly terrain, but its main features are the water hazards.  With water on 14 of the holes, you better be precise or bring balls.  Some of the holes have water on the left side and some on the right side, so the course is an equal opportunity ball washers. The par three 15th is a tricky one with 174 carry over water with a normal breeze in your face.  There is a bail out on the left, but you have to content with three bunkers.  Throughout the day, golfers must also battle the wind off nearby Lake Pontchartrain. The greens are large and undulating.  This course is a tough challenge, but a delight to play.
 

Belle Terre
This course, designed by Pete Dye, will make you talk to yourself.   Each hole has a name and I made up a few more that are not suitable for printing.  With names, such as, Buried Elephant, Crooked Stick, Hidden Trouble and Last Chance, you'll know what I mean. The course plays 6840 yards from the tips and is cut through the swamps of Louisiana. Water comes into play on ten of the eighteen holes, making Belle Terre a scenic challenge. The fairways are Bermuda with Tif-Dwarf greens. Belle Terre has been the host to many golf events including the Louisiana State Golf Association Tournament, Louisiana State Amateur Championship, Louisiana State Seniors Championship, and PGA Tour Qualifying Stop.  If you're on this day, then you'll score despite the trouble.

Don't miss the reopening of Eastover Country Club and Lakewood Country Club in the near future.  Let the good times roll.