Old Waverly Golf Club

The verdict

Old Waverly is the course that put West Point on the golf map, a town of barely twelve thousand people in northeast Mississippi that now draws golfers from across the South. Jerry Pate, the 1976 US Open champion, laid it out with Bob Cupp in 1988 around a 70 acre lake, and the surrounding development of clapboard cottages and a clock tower lends the place the feel of a small New England village dropped into the Black Prairie. It is a refined, traditional parkland course rather than a brute, and its reputation rests on conditioning and balance as much as on length.

For the traveling golfer, Old Waverly earns its place for two reasons. The first is pedigree: it hosted the 1999 US Women's Open, won by Juli Inkster, and the 2006 US Women's Amateur, so it has tested the best in the women's game and held up. The second is the pairing with Mossy Oak, the open, links style Gil Hanse course built across the road by the same ownership. Old Waverly is private, but its cottages and stay and play packages make it accessible to visitors, and the two contrasting courses in one quiet town make a compelling, low key golf trip in a part of the country most golfers overlook.

The holes worth the trip

Old Waverly is a course of variety rather than a single signature, and that is its strength. Pate and Cupp routed it so that the wind and the water never come at you from the same angle twice, and the par 3s in particular run the full range, from a short, precise iron to a long, demanding shot defended by bunkering and the lake. The fairways are generous enough to swing freely off the tee, but the second shot is where the course asks its questions, with subtle green complexes that reward the player who flights the ball and controls distance into firm putting surfaces.

The lake is the defining feature, gathering several holes on the back nine and bringing both nerve and beauty to the closing stretch. Water down one side concentrates the mind on the tee and again on the approach, and the par 5s offer the classic risk and reward decision, a chance to chase a green in two against the threat of a wet ball. The greens, rebuilt and kept to championship standard, are the reason the course tested the best women in the world in 1999: they are true, quick and firm, and they punish a careless approach with a long, swinging putt.

What stays with most visitors is the polish. Because Old Waverly is a private club rather than a daily fee course, the conditioning is consistent and the experience unhurried, and the village setting of cottages and live oaks gives the round a sense of occasion. From the back tees it is a genuine test; from a sensible marker it is a fair, scenic and thoroughly enjoyable round, and the obvious anchor for a West Point golf trip that adds Mossy Oak the following morning.

Where to stay nearby

The natural base is Old Waverly itself, whose cottages and lodge sit beside the course and the lake and put you a short cart ride from the first tee, with the village setting making it easy to stay on property for a golf focused couple of days. West Point has a small range of hotels in town for those who prefer to stay off site, and Columbus, twenty minutes away, offers more rooms and dining.

Because the draw is two courses in one town, most golfers build a stay around both. Pair Old Waverly with its sister course, the open Gil Hanse layout at Mossy Oak Golf Club across the road, then extend the trip south to the Tom Fazio seclusion of Fallen Oak near Biloxi, or east to Jack Nicklaus's championship test at Shoal Creek outside Birmingham.

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