Drove 245 miles
I left Hattiesburg in the morning and headed for Natchez, MS to play golf. After my round I will cross the mighty Mississippi River over the Natchez bridge and drive to Alexandria, LA, my next golf destination.
My PLAN was to play the Beau Pres Country Club in Natchez as it had good reviews on the Golf Advisor website, and usually the reviews there are at least close to my experience after playing a golf course. I have written reviews on Golf Advisor myself in the past, but now I just read them.
Unfortunately Beau Pres was about to host a Women's All Pro Tour event and the course was closed except for the ladies playing their practice round. Since I had never heard of the Women's All Pro Tour myself, I will enlighten you. The LPGA is the main women's professional golf organization and their upper tier "feeder" tour is the Symetra tour. They had a Symetra tour event at Circling Raven in Worley, ID this year. It was a huge success and I will probably go watch it when they come back next year. The "feeder" tour for the Symetra tour is the Women's All Pro Tour, the way the Canadian McKenzie Tour is a "feeder" tour for the Korn Ferry Tour. If you play well enough, you get to graduate up a level to the next tour. Korn Ferry & Symetra are like baseball's high minor leagues (AAA) and the Women's All Pro Tour and the McKenzie Tour are basically rookie leagues.
I asked the golf pro at Beau Pres if there was any other golf courses in the area and he told me Duncan park, which is in the Natchez city limits. I was "wary" of another muni, but he said it was pretty good and I should be able to get on easy enough. I drove to the course, paid the ridiculously low green and cart fee of $ 24 and set off to play the course.
At first glance the course looked a little rundown and scruffy, like a lot of munis, but I have to remind myself that this is NOT prime golf season in the south. I played the longest tees, only 6055 yards at this course. The slope rating is 117 and course rating of 69.4 told me I could handle the blue tees.
The front nine and back nine are quite different, and were probably built at separate times. The front is quite short (2891), but has a lot of elevation changes, an abundance of trees and tight tee shots (not a lot of room for error left & right!) and small greens. I assume this was the original nine. The back is longer (3164) and a lot more open off the tee as there are not as many trees, but there are a few holes that require an accurate tee shot or you won't have much of a 2nd shot at all. The greens are also bigger targets. The back nine is on the edge of Duncan Park which has a lot of other activities for families and children other than golf.
It's a great park and the golf course exceeded my expectations so I had a very nice day before getting back on the road. Across the Natchez bridge is Vidalia, LA, about a third of the size of Natchez, I was looking for Cajun food, but few things were open except the liquor stores. I stopped at one to look for craft beers. I like to dry different craft beers whenever possible, as long as they are NOT IPAs which I have never developed a taste for. I didn't find anything interesting EXCEPT that Louisiana allows sales of Margaritas at liquor store drive through windows! I had never seen such a thing, but I didn't buy on (TODAY) as I had a LOT of miles yet to drive.
I have been in Alexandria, LA before, on my aborted trip last year. After I checked in to my motel, I went looking for some Cajun food, but everyplace I tried was shut down or just closed because it was Sunday. Eventually I settled for a Mexican restaurant and it was pretty good, considering that my palate was all set for some spice Cajun cooking.
Randy’s golf course ratings play again could recommend Price
Prairieview GC (Byron, IL) 5 YES YES $
The Boulder Course (Winchester, VA) 5 YES YES $$
Wine Valley (Walla Walla, WA) 5 YES YES $$$
The Walker Course (Clemson, SC) 5 YES YES $$
Dakota Winds (Hankinson, ND) 5 YES YES $$
The Links at Greystone (Walworth, NY) 4.5 YES YES $$
Slammer & Squire GC 4.5 YES YES $$$ (St. Augustine, FL)
Raccoon Creek (Littleton, CO) 4.5 YES YES $$
Brooks Golf (Okoboji, IA) 4 YES YES $$
The Legacy (Springfield, TN) 4 YES YES $
Awarii Dunes (Kearney, NE) 4 YES YES $$
Chicopee CC (Chicopee, MA) 4 YES YES $
The Architects Club (Phillipsburg, NJ) 4 YES YES $$
Lake Panorama Nat. (Panora, IA) 4 no*1 YES $$
Heritage Shores (Bridgeville, DE) 4 YES YES $$
Houston Oaks (Paris, KY) 4 YES YES $
Eagles Landing (Ocean City, MD) 4 YES YES $$
Brandon GC (Brandon, SD) 4 YES YES $
Viroqua Hills GC (Viroqua, WI) 4 YES YES $
Magnolia Grove Crossings GC 4 YES YES $$$
Portland GC (Portland, CT) 4 YES YES $
Green Valley CC (Portsmouth, RI) 4 YES YES $$
Snow Hill CC (New Vienna, OH) 4 YES YES $
Links at Union Vale (Lagrangeville, NY) 4 YES*2 YES $$$
Bear Slide GC (Cicero, IN) 4 no YES $$
Pilgrim's Oak (Peach Bottom, PA) 3.5 YES YES $
Lochmere G & CC (Tilton, NH) 3.5 YES YES $$
Rivers Edge (Burley, ID) 3.5 YES ? YES $
Natchez Golf Club @ Duncan Park 3.5 YES YES $ (Natchez, MS)
Eastern Hills (Kalamazoo, MI) 3.5 YES YES $
Brattleboro CC (Brattleboro, VT) 3.5 YES ? YES $$
Monroe CC (Monroe, NC) 3.5 YES YES $
Martindale CC (Auburn, ME) 3.5 YES ? YES $$$
Birch Creek (Smithfield,UT) 3.5 no good golfers only $
Fort Myers CC (Fort Myers, FL) 3 YES YES $
Kimball Golf Club (Kimball, MN) 3 no no $
Buffalo Golf Club (Buffalo, WY) 3 no no $$
Pryor Creek (Huntley, MT) 3 no no $ Johnny Walker Course (there’s also a Country Club course, but you need to play with a member!)
The Brookside Club (Bourne, MA) 2 no no $$
Crosswinds Championship GC 1.5 no no $ (Savannah, GA)
Jones Course (Wheeling, WV) 1 no no $$$
Langston GC (Washington D.C.) 1 no no $$
*1 = would play again if a different yardage was offered, with slope and course ratings
*2 = would move up a tee and NOT pay weekend green fee. M-Th fee is $ 77 and $ 61 after 2 p.m.
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