Mississippi/Alabama coast courses

I have a group of 4 from South Central Louisiana wanting to get out of state. Looking for a 4-5 hour drive, so that would put MS/AL coast in the range.
Internet searches have found Grand Bear in MS and Kiva Dunes in AL.

Anyone have any course suggestions?

Tentitive plan is to drive up Friday morning, golf Friday afternoon. Stay in the area Friday night. Then depending on course suggestions, either stay in the area and play a round in the am, or head back to LA and play TPC in New Orleans.

I posted this earlier in top public courses to play but I would absolutely recommend playing the trail in Alabama. They are a handful but worth every penny.

I have a group headin' to Gulfport @ the then of the month. We're playin' Grand Bear, Windance, The Oaks & Shell Landing. I'll be posting a review once we return.

Here's a link to my thread w/ links. FWIW_ we swapped out The Bridges for Shell Landing.

I would try the Grand Hotel courses in Pt. Clear, AL on Mobile Bay. They have recently been renovated and are now opperated by the RTJ Trail.

don't know how much your looking to spend, but Fallen Oak is the easily the best course in the state of MS. The course is absolutely incredible, and the service is over the top. You'll have to stay at the Beau Rivage Casino to play. So you might want to call ahead and try and get a package deal, you probably pay about $200 for one round/one night.

Grand Bear's nice ($50-60)
The Preserve has a great layout ($50-60)
Kiva Dunes is always good ($100)
The Peninsula's good ($100)
Stay away from the courses in Point Clear/Grand Hotel

I will never go back to the MS coast without playing Fallen Oak....its awesome!

A great club (but private. You have to know a member to play and I happen to know many members) is the Inverness Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Back when I lived in the state, my favourite club to play was the Links at Montevallo (Montevallo, Alabama). It does not at first appear to be a beautiful course (the club house is a trailer), however once you start to reach the five hole you find the course to be incredibly beautiful. The 17th at Montevallo is probably my favourite par 3 that I've ever played. And the course cost roughly $30 to play and if you visit their website they will give you a complementary round.

Wife and I have stayed in the Biloxi area a few times.  We've played, (from west to east)

Bridges - Arnold Palmer - Bay St Louis, MS

Grand Bear - Jack Nicklaus - Saucier, MS

Shell Landing - Davis Love III - Gautier, MS

Wanted to play Fallen Oak, but WAY pricey.  The others were very reasonably priced if you don't mind waiting until afternoon to play.

dave

I am going to be in this area in a couple of weeks for a weekend and I am looking for a cheaper option to play.  So far we are going to play Windance, The Oaks, and Shell Landing.  How is Hickory Hill CC, formerly known as Mississippi National?  It's only about 10 minutes from Shell Landing and we were thinking of playing it the morning before we play Shell Landing.

Also,  what about The Great Southern, Sunkist, and Gulf Hills?

No doubt, everyone says Grand Hotel.  I'm willing to admit we might have caught them on a bad day, but for $120, it was not in that good of shape, and we had two carts break down.  Ran out of beers waiting on cart # 2, then could not even finish the round, becasue it got dark.  Did not even offer us any compensation.

Penninsula is good

Never played Kiva Dunes, but here it's awesome, but if the wind is up, watch out.

Rock Creek in Fairhope, AL.  About $40-50 and real fun.

Magnolia Grove in Mobile

My grandparents had a house in Gulf Hills....played it many times.  They have since moved on but my uncles and cousins and I went back last year and stayed at the inn.  It has had many ownership changes over the years.  We played it a few times because my grandfather loved that course and it was a fun memory.  If you don't have a nostalgic memory for the course though, I wouldn't play it again.  It's ok but there are better IMO.  I asked about Sunkist when there and was told it wasn't much better as I recall.  I heard the same about Hickory Hills because I wanted play there but we opted out.

Without a doubt, my favorite course in the area for money and conditions was The Oaks.  If we go back we will buy the pass that gets guest on cheaper and play it several times.  We used the driving range at Shell Landing when we first arrived and course conditions were questionable.   We opted not to play it based upon some conditions we saw.  May have been a seasonal problem though.

Grand Bear is a great course which we also played.  Not the cheapest but well worth a one time expense.  Just play the right tees....We didn't which is a no no on an unfamiliar course.