Mossy Oak Golf Club

The verdict

Mossy Oak is the course that confirmed West Point as a destination rather than a one course curiosity. It was the first new layout Gil Hanse completed after he designed the Olympic course in Rio, built in partnership with Toxey Haas, the founder of the Mossy Oak camouflage brand, on open ground in the Black Prairie of northeast Mississippi. Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner cleared the site to wide, treeless, links style terrain that rolls and tumbles, the kind of golf you expect on a coast in Britain rather than inland in the American South, and the result has been showered with praise since it opened in 2016.

For the traveling golfer, the appeal is twofold. First, it is genuinely public, so unlike many of the country's celebrated modern courses you can simply book a tee time. Second, it sits directly across the road from Old Waverly, the polished parkland course that hosted the 1999 US Women's Open, and the two are owned together and sold as a stay and play pair. Playing a wide, ground game links one morning and a tree lined, water guarded parkland the next, in a quiet Mississippi town, is a contrast few destinations can match, and it is the reason golfers cross the South to get here.

The holes worth the trip

Mossy Oak looks, from the first tee, almost too generous. The fairways are vast, there are no trees to frame a line, and the eye is drawn to the horizon rather than to a target. That width is the design's whole argument. Hanse asks not where you can hit it but where you should, because the angle into each green, set by the position of the bunkers and the tilt of the ground, decides whether the next shot is simple or severe. Drive to the wrong side of a fairway and the green half closes to you; find the right side and a running approach opens up.

The ground game is the point. The turf is firm and the greens are large, contoured and open at the front, so the smart play is often a low runner that uses the slopes rather than a high shot that ignores them. Wind across the open prairie can turn a benign hole into a real examination, and the lack of trees means there is nothing to stop it. The bunkering is rugged and natural, placed to punish the lazy line, and several greens fall away at the edges so that a slightly long or wide approach trickles into trouble while a well judged one feeds toward the flag.

What makes the round memorable is how different it feels from anything else in the region, and how much fun it is to play more than once. Because it rewards thought and creativity rather than raw power, a mid handicapper can score with a sensible ground game while a strong player is tempted into the bold line and the risk that comes with it. Walk it, as the course invites, and the rhythm of the open land and the run of the ball stay with you long after, which is exactly why most golfers pair it with Old Waverly and stay the night.

Where to stay nearby

The natural base is the accommodation shared with Old Waverly, whose cottages and lodge sit beside the lake a short drive away and are designed for golfers playing both courses across a couple of days. West Point itself has a handful of hotels in town, and Columbus, twenty minutes off, adds more rooms and dining for those who prefer to stay off site.

Most golfers come for the pair and build the trip around both courses. Play Mossy Oak and its parkland sister Old Waverly back to back, then carry the trip south to the secluded Tom Fazio resort golf of Fallen Oak near Biloxi, or east to the championship pedigree of Shoal Creek outside Birmingham.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around West Point and northeast Mississippi.